Operating System ≠ User/Computer Interface
An operating system is often simply seen and described as the
user/computer interface.
We often (mistakenly) claim to understand, and like or dislike, an
"operating system" based on its interface.
Such an interface provides us with:
- program creation (editors, compilers, debuggers, linkers)
- program execution (character and graphical)
- access to I/O devices (both fixed and removable)
- constrained access to files of media
- constrained access to "internal" resources
- error detection, response, reporting, and
- accounting and monitoring.
Whether or not a certain interface runs on a particular hardware or
operating system platform is usually dictated by economics, marketing,
and politics - not technology.
CITS2002 Systems Programming, Lecture 3, p2, 31st July 2023.
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CITS2002