HERE Stucy this text title. what do you think it means? [operating Systems: Hidden Software Now read this text to check your answer and to find the answers to these questions: 1 What difference is there between applications software and operating systems? 2 Whyis the supervisor program the most important operating system program? 3. What is the difference between resident and non-resident programs? 4 What are the main functions of an operating system? ‘When a brand new computer ‘comes off the factory assembly line, i ean do nothing The hardware needs software to ‘make it work.Are we talking bout applications software such as wordprocessing or spreadsheet sofeware? Partly. But an applications software package ‘does not communicate directly ‘with the hardware. Between the applications software and the hardware is a sofware interface an operating system.An ‘operating system isa set of programs that lies between applications software and the ‘computer hardware. ‘The most important program in the operating system, the program that manages che ‘operating system, the supervisor program, most of which remains in memory and is thus referred to as resident. The ‘supervisor controls the entire ‘operating system and loads into memory other operating system programs (called non-resident) from disk storage only as. needed. ‘An operating system has three ‘main functions: (|) manage the ‘computer's resources, such as the central processing unit, ‘memory, disk drives, and printers, (2) establish a user interface, and (3) execute and provide services for applications software. Keep in mind, however, ‘that much of the work of an ‘operating system Is hidden from the user In particular, the first listed function, managing the computer's resources is taken ‘are of without the user being aware of the details, Furthermore, al input and ‘output operations although {invoked by an applications program, are actually carried out by the operating system.42 UNITS Operating Systems Be Find the answers to these questions in the following text. 1. What did Linus Torvalds use to write the Linux kernel? 2 How was the Linux kernel first made available to the general public? 3. What is a programmer likely to do with source code? 4 Why will most software companies not sell you thelr source code? 5 What type of utilities and applications are provided in a Linux distribution? 6 Whatis x? 7 What graphical user interfaces are ‘mentioned in the text? LINUX Linux has its raots in a student project. tn 1942, an undergraduate called Linus Torvalds was studying computer science in Helsinki, Finland. Like most computer science course, + big component of it was taught on (and about) Unix. Unix was the wonder operating system of the 1870s and 1910s: bath a textbook example of the principles of operating system design, and sufficiently robust to be the standard OS in 10 engineering and scientific computing. But Unix ‘was 8 commercial product (licensed ty ATE? to ‘2 number of resellers}, and cast more than & Student could pay. ‘Annoyed by the shartcamings af Minix (a 15 compact Unix clone wnitien as a teaching aid by Professor Andy Tannenbaum) Linus set out to write his own ‘kernel’ — the core of an operating system that handles memory alléation, tats to hardware device, and makes 2» sure everything Keeps rurning, He used-the_ GNU programm ‘Sfallman’s Free Softwate Foundation, an_ ‘of volunteers dedfeated to falling ing good software that 2 anyone could use without paying. When he'd : ‘ode to the Linux kemel on the Internet Source code is important. t's the orginal from which compiled programs are generated. I you se don't have the source code to a prograi, you can't modify I to fix bugs or add mew features. Most sofware companies won't sell you ther souree code, or vill only do so for an eye watering price, because they believe that if they vA] 4. ieA ‘make it available it will destroy their revem What happened next was astounding, from the conventional, commercial software industry point of view — and uttriy predictable to 4» anyone who knew about the Free Software Foundation. Programmers (mostly academics and students} began using Linux. They found that it didn't do things they wanted it to do — 3 50 they fixed it. And where they improved it, ‘they sent the improvements to Linus, who rolled them into the kemel. And Linux began to grow, ‘There's @ term for this model of software development; i's called Open Source (see worn.opensource.ora for more information) ‘» Anyone can have the source code — it’s fee (in the sense of free speech, not fiee beet). Anyone an contribute to it. IF you use it heavily you may want to extend or develop or fix bugs in it ~ and its so easy to give your Fixes back to +» the community that mast people do so. ‘An operating system kemel on its own isn't @ Tot of use; but Linux was purposefully designed as a near-clone of Unix, and there i alot of software out thete that is free and was designed to compile on Linux. By about 1992, the first ‘distributions’ appeared. 4 ‘A distribution is the Linux-user term for a pose ean (the utilities and applications you need to make » it do useful things — command interpreters, programming tools, text editors, typesetting tools, and graphical user interfaces based on the X windowing system. X is a standard in deste be Seen compte, but nl ier deine oF Pes ss complet sited wd g Ste on wh pels implement graphic itertaes Nhe KDE and Gnome. — ‘As more and mare people got to know about + Lina, some of them Began to port the Linx temel to run on nof-standard computers. Because its fe, Linux s now the most widely ported operating system theres [Adapted fiom ‘Smooth Operator by Charles Stross, Computer Shopper magazine, Novernber 1998), UNIT 6 Operating Systems 43 Re-read the text to find the answers to these questions. 1. Match the terms in Table A with the statements in Table B. Kernel Free Software Foundation Source code Open Source A distribution x ‘type of software development where ‘any programmer can develop or fix bugs in the software ‘The original systems program from which ‘compiled programs are generated C- ‘Acomplete operating system kit with the utilities and applications ypu need to ‘make it do useful things ‘Astandard distributed windowing system ‘on which people implement graphical Interfaces ‘An organisation of volunteers dedicated ‘to making good software that anyone could use without paying 5 ‘The core of an operating system that handles memory allocation, talks to hardware devices, and makes sure everything kes umning 2 2 Mark the following statements as True or False: Linux was created in the 1980s. ig eoaered Wr eeehyenteeriZ Linux is based on Unix. Minix is based on Unix. Linux runs on more types of computer than any other operating system. ]