An operating system (commonly abbreviated to either OS or O/S) is an interface between hardware)
and user; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer. The operating system acts as a host for applications that are run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the details of the operation of the hardware. This relieves application programs from having to manage these details. and makes it easier to write applications. Almost all computers, including handheld computerscomputers,

supercomputers,,desktop computers, supercomputers and even video game consoles, use an operating system of some type. Some of the oldest models may however use an embedded operating system that may be contained on a compact disk or other data storage device.

Operating systems offer a number of services to application programs and users.
Applications access these services through application programming interfaces (APIs) or
system calls. By invoking these interfaces, the application can request a servic from the.service
operating system, pass parameters, and receive the results of the operation. Users may also
interact with the operating system with some kind of software user interface (UI) like
typing commands by using command line interface (CLI) or using a ggraphical user
interface (GUI, commonly pronounced “gooey”). For hand held and desktop computers,hand-held
the user interface is generally considered part of the operating system. On large multimulti-user
systems like Unix and Unix-like systems, the user interface is generally implemented as anlikegenerally
application program that runs outside the operating system. (Whether the user interface
should be included as part of the operating system is a point of contention.)

Common contemporary operating systems include Microsoft Windows, Mac OS Linux,OS,
BSD and Solaris. Microsoft Windows has a significant majority of market share in the.
desktop and notebook computer markets, while servers generally run on UNIX or Unix-like
systems. Embedded device markets are split amongst several operating systems systems.

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