WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM? - TECHNOLOGY - 2025

The most important functions of an operating system are process management, memory management, communication between applications, among others. An operating system is the main software or set of programs that manage all the processes that arise within an electronic device.

They are not the programs and applications that we usually use to operate, for example, the computer, but the characteristics that allow these applications to work.

One of the purposes of the operating system is to manage the kernel, the location resources and the hardware of our machine. Most electronic devices on the market that have a microprocessor have an operating system.

At the beginning of the creation of operating systems, the biggest flaw they had was that they had very little capacity and very low utilization, so it was usually done manually through a batch. Within the batch, the Jobs, which are the orders that are needed to perform an action, were activated manually.

As the complexity of operating systems increased, these tasks needed to be automated, thus appearing the first command interpreters.

With all the updates and discoveries that have been made over the years, nothing remains of the first operating systems that had to be activated manually.

They are becoming more sophisticated and activate themselves to protect the machine and carry out necessary and routine tasks.

Main functions of an operating system

As we discussed before, most operating systems already come prefabricated with a list of tasks to perform within our electronic device so that everything goes smoothly.

It is only necessary to make small adjustments to adapt the configuration to the needs of our device.

1- Process management

One of the most important parts of an operating system is managing the processes. Processes are the resources that a program needs to run.

This involves the use of memory, CPU (central processing unit) time, and files that the application needs access to in order to function properly.

The operating system, to take care of the proper functioning of the machine, is dedicated to creating and destroying processes, stopping and restarting them and helping with the communication mechanisms between processes.

We can compare this task with the work of an office worker. If we make a list of tasks, the process management system will establish a line of action where it places the most important processes in a priority place, the intermediate ones in an intermediate place, and finally the less important ones last.

The problem with this is that the process management is done through a machine that establishes arbitrary priorities to the tasks to be carried out, and sometimes less important tasks are left without executing.

It is then necessary to change the configuration of the process management tool and give higher priority to the necessary tasks or force their execution by hand.

2- Main memory management

Another important component of the operating system is main memory management. Memory consists of a data store that is shared by the CPU and applications and loses its capacity in the event of a failure.

Therefore, it is important that the operating system takes care of memory management, so that it does not saturate and data and information contained therein are lost.

The operating system makes sure what part of the memory is being used and why. Decide where the processes are placed when there is a free space and allocate and claim the space that is necessary so that it is always well used.

3- Secondary storage management

Memory is very volatile and in the event of any failure you can lose the information contained in it. For this, it is necessary to have a second storage module that can store the data for the long term.

As with main memory, the operating system is responsible for managing the free space and assigns the save order. It also ensures that everything is neatly stored, as well as how much space is left and where.

4- Management of the entry and exit system

The operating system is responsible for managing the input and output ports of the computer, such as headphones, a printer, a monitor, etc.

In the past, when you wanted to install a new external port, it was important to have an installation disk that contained the drivers for the computer to accept them.

Nowadays, the operating system of the computer itself is usually in charge of searching the network for the information necessary for the new external ports to work perfectly.

5- File system registry

The files are formats created by their owners that are converted into tables, and the operating system is in charge of registering and saving them.

The operating system is responsible for building, deleting and archiving the files created, as well as offering the necessary tools to be able to access the files at any time.

It establishes communication between files and storage units, and finally, it can be configured to back up all files, so that in the event of an accident, they will not all be lost.

6- Security

The operating system is responsible for the security of the machine. One of the most important activities is the access of users or programs to where they should not.

There are many viruses that can affect our system, and the operating system ensures that this does not happen.

You can configure the operating system so that regular checks are carried out and the security controls that you have to perform are established.

7- Communication between elements and applications

Through network interfaces, the operating system maintains communication between the different components of the machine and all the applications that are in contact with them. Send and receive information.

8- Report the status of the system

There are a series of applications that are installed by default with the operating system, but they are not a system as such.

These offer an environment and basic characteristics for the development and execution of the programs that are installed on our machine.

It reports on the status of the system, if any action is needed or approve any action to be taken, such as automatic updates.

In addition, it supports the different programming languages ​​so that any type of application is operative on our machine. Of course, it has programs that improve communication between applications.

9- Resource management

It manages all the main parts of the machine through its resource manager. His role as administrator involves the security and communication of the central processing unit or CPU, the external devices that are connected to the computer.

Like internal memory and secondary memory, where you sometimes have to clean up and switch stored parts from one to another.

In general, it manages all the resources of the system and all the resources that come into contact with it

10- User administration

The operating system is also in charge of managing the profiles stored on the computer depending on who has created a profile on it.

User administration can be single user or multi user. This does not mean that the operating system allows only one user profile to be created for use on one computer.

The fact that it is a single-user profile implies that only the executions of that user are active and only his. In the other, in the multi-user, it allows the tasks of more than one user to be active at the same time.

The most common operating systems

The best known and most used operating systems on the market are Windows, iOS and Linux for computers. And the Android and iOS for smartphones.

There are thousands of operating systems, with varying degrees of sophistication, depending on which device they are needed for.

Windows belongs to the great macro-empire of Microsoft, while iOs belongs to Apple. Linux, for its part, is a free software platform that allows you to modify your operating system. Within the Linux platform is Ubuntu and Devian, which are the best known.

These free softwares allow the user to modify the operating system as he likes. It also has a certain risk, and that is that touching the kernel of the operating system when you do not have much knowledge can generate a catastrophe.

On the contrary, operating systems such as Windows and iOS are already prepared for the most inexperienced users, so that the initial configuration of the operating system allows its use without having to make any expensive modifications.

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