Windows 8 - A Single Platform

Microsoft’s new Operating System is aimed at working across all the three device platforms most people across the world use today—mobile phones, tablets and computers. Visually and functionally, Microsoft’s new offering will be a departure from what it has so far provided in computing.

Microsoft’s thinking is inspired by an obvious fact: in the age of Internet-driven mobility and cloud computing.

Windows 8 sports a new tile-based user interface, which works well on touch surfaces (tablets and touch-screen phones) and should integrate well on computers. “Microsoft has put a common kernel (in Windows 8) that will be part of the PC, tablet and phone.

Windows’ earlier software language wasn’t compatible with the others—only 10 per cent of applications developed for Apple and Android were available for Windows. The new version is written in a language similar to what both Apple and Google use. This will open up an entire universe of applications for Windows users.

Operating System as a Resource Manager

The Operating system of a Computer works as an inerface between he user, and hardware devices. Applicaion software is designed to achieve specific tasks whereas the hardware helps in achieving the task. The compuer system provides all this with the use of available resources. The hard disk, primary memory and the processor can be though of as resources.

the Operating System provides an ordered and conrolled allocaion of the processor, memories and I/O devices among he various programs.

Take for example, a computer system with a printer and two applications programs running. If both programs wish to print a document at the same time, will those be printed by the printer or will there be a contention? Here, the operating system comes into play: it manages to queue the outputs to the printer. In short, this means that it is the ask of the operating system to manage a computer's resources. Some of the resources that the operating system manages are:

1. Processor
2. Memory
3. Devices
4. Information

To explain simply :-

• It manages the hardware and software resources of the system. In a desktop computer, these resources include such things as the processor, memory, disk space and more (On a cell phone, they include the keypad, the screen, the address book, the phone dialer, the battery and the network connection).
• It provides a stable, consistent way for applications to deal with the hardware without having to know all the details of the hardware.

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Types of Operating Systems

There are generally four types, categorized based on the types of computers they control and the sort of applications they support. The categories are:

1. Real-time operating system (RTOS) - Real-time operating systems are used to control machinery, scientific instruments and industrial systems. An RTOS typically has very little user-interface capability, and no end-user utilities, since the system will be a "sealed box" when delivered for use. A very important part of an RTOS is managing the resources of the computer so that a particular operation executes in precisely the same amount of time, every time it occurs.

2. Single-user, single task - As the name implies, this operating system is designed to manage the computer so that one user can effectively do one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm handheld computers is a good example of a modern single-user, single-task operating system.

3. Single-user, multi-tasking - This is the type of operating system most people use on their desktop and laptop computers today. Microsoft's Windows and Apple's MacOS platforms are both examples of operating systems that will let a single user have several programs in operation at the same time.

4. Multi-user - A multi-user operating system allows many different users to take advantage of the computer's resources simultaneously. Unix, VMS and mainframe operating systems, such as MVS, are examples of multi-user operating systems.