PROGRAM:1

Study of Windows & Linux Operating System

 Windows: Windows operating system is a computer program that manages all
computer resources and provides services to applications that run on top of it. This
operating system was developed by Microsoft and released in 1985 under the name
Windows 1.0. Since then, the Windows operating system has continued to evolve
and become one of the most popular operating systems in the world. The Windows
operating system is designed to run on various types of hardware, including
desktops, laptops, servers, and mobile devices. Windows uses a graphical user
interface (GUI) that allows users to interact with the computer through icons,
buttons, and visual menus, rather than using text commands like other operating
systems. Windows also has many features such as multitasking capability, which
allows several applications to run simultaneously, as well as plug-and-play
capability that makes it easy for users to connect additional devices such as printers,
scanners, and cameras.
 Versions of Windows:
1. 1st Generation (1945-1955)
2. 2nd Generation (1955-1965)
3. 3rd Generation (1965-1980)
4. 4th Generation (1980-Present)

1st Generation: Vacuum Tubes and Plug boards

Digital computers were not constructed until the second world war. Calculating engines
with mechanical relays were built at that time. However, the mechanical relays were very
slow and were later replaced with vacuum tubes. These machines were enormous but were
still very slow.

2nd Generation: Transistors and Batch Systems

Transistors led to the development of the computer systems that could be manufactured
and sold to paying customers. These machines were known as mainframes and were locked
in air-conditioned computer rooms with staff to operate them.
The Batch System was introduced to reduce the wasted time in the computer. A tray full of
jobs was collected in the input room and read into the magnetic tape. After that, the tape
was rewound and mounted on a tape drive. Then the batch operating system was loaded in
which read the first job from the tape and ran it. The output was written on the second
tape. After the whole batch was done, the input and output tapes were removed and the
output tape was printed.
3rd Generation: Integrated Circuits and Multiprogramming
Until the 1960’s, there were two types of computer systems i.e., the scientific and the
commercial computers. These were combined by IBM in the System/360. This used
integrated circuits and provided a major price and performance advantage over the 2 nd
generation systems.
The 3rd generation operating systems also introduced multiprogramming. This meant that
the processor was not idle while a job was completing its I/O operation. Another job was
scheduled on the processor so that its time would not be wasted.

4th Generation: Personal Computers

Personal Computers were easy to create with the development of large-scale integrated
circuits. These were chips containing thousands of transistors on a square centimeter of
silicon. Because of these, microcomputers were much cheaper than minicomputers and that
made it possible for a single individual to own one of them.

The advent of personal computers also led to the growth of networks. This created network
operating systems and distributed operating systems. The users were aware of a network
while using a network operating system and could log in to remote machines and copy files
from one machine to another.

 Windows Architecture: The kernel is the most trusted part of the operating system.
Multiple rings of protection were among the most revolutionary concepts introduced by
the Multics operating system, most general-purpose systems use only two rings, even if
the hardware they run on provides more CPU modes than that. For example, Windows
7 and Windows Server 2008 (and their predecessors) use only two rings, with ring 0
corresponding to kernel mode and ring 3 to user mode, because earlier versions of
Windows ran on processors that supported only two protection levels.

 Process Management: It is an important part of the operating system. It allows you

to control the way your computer runs by managing the currently active processes. This
includes ending processes that are no longer needed, setting process priorities, and
more. You can do it on your computer also.
 File System Management: File management is one of the basic but important
features provided by the operating system. File management in the operating
system is nothing but software that handles or manages the files (binary, text,
pdf, docs, audio, video, etc.) present in computer software.
 Linux: The Linux Operating System is a type of operating system that is similar to
Unix, and it is built upon the Linux Kernel. The Linux Kernel is like the brain of the
operating system because it manages how the computer interacts with its hardware
and resources. It makes sure everything works smoothly and efficiently. But the Linux
Kernel alone is not enough to make a complete operating system.

 Versions of Linux:
1. Ubuntu
2. Debian
3. CentOS Linux
4. CentOS Stream
5. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
6. Gentoo
7. Fedora
8. OpenSUSE
9. Scientific Linux
10. Cloud Linux
11. Elementary OS
12. Linux Mint
13. Arch Linux
14. Manjaro
15. Oracle Linux
16. Slackware
17. Mageia
18. Clear Linux
19. Rocky Linux

 Architecture of Linux: Linux is an open-source UNIX-based operating system.

The main component of the Linux operating system is Linux kernel. It is
developed to provide low-cost or free operating system service to personal system
users, which includes an X-window system, Emacs editor, IP/TCP GUI, etc.

 Process Management: A process means program in execution. It generally

takes an input, processes it and gives us the appropriate output.
Check Introduction to Process Management for more details about a process.
There are basically 2 types of processes.
1. Foreground processes: Such kind of processes are also known
as interactive processes. These are the processes which are to be
executed or initiated by the user or the programmer, they can not be
initialized by system services. Such processes take input from the user
 and return the output. While these processes are running we can not
directly initiate a new process from the same terminal.
2. Background processes: Such kind of processes are also known as non
interactive processes. These are the processes that are to be executed or initiated
by the system itself or by users, though they can even be managed by users.
These processes have a unique PID or process if assigned to them and we can
initiate other processes within the same terminal from which they are initiated.

 Memory Management: The subsystem of Linux memory management is

responsible to manage the memory inside the system. It contains the implementation
of demand paging and virtual memory. Also, it contains memory allocation for user
space programs and kernel internal structures. Linux memory management
subsystem includes files mapping into the address space of the processes and several
other things.
 File System Management: In Linux, most of the operations are performed on
files. And to handle these files Linux has directories also known as folders which
are maintained in a tree-like structure. Though, these directories are also a type of
file themselves. Linux has 3 types of files .
1. Regular Files: It is the common file type in Linux. it includes files like – text
files, images, binary files, etc. Such files can be created using the touch
command. They consist of the majority of files in the Linux/UNIX system.
The regular file contains ASCII or Human Readable text, executable
program binaries, program data and much more.
2. Directories: Windows call these directories as folders. These are the files that store
the list of file names and the related information. The root directory(/) is the base of
the system, /home/ is the default location for user’s home directories, /bin for
Essential User Binaries, /boot – Static Boot Files, etc. We could create new
directories with mkdir command.
3. Special Files: Represents a real physical device such as a printer which is used for
IO operations. Device or special files are used for device Input/Output(I/O) on
UNIX and Linux systems. You can see them in a file system like an ordinary
directory or file.