Operating Systems

Computing Environments

Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science

Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation
(Deemed to be University)
Green fields, Vaddeswaram, AP-522502, India

Session : 4
 Computing Environments
• Computing Environments
• Free/Libre and Open-Source Operating Systems

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 2

 Computing Environments

• Traditional
• Mobile
• Client Server
• Peer-to-Peer
• Cloud computing
• Real-time Embedded

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 3

 Traditional

• Stand-alone general-purpose machines

• But blurred as most systems interconnect with others
(i.e., the Internet)
• Portals provide web access to internal systems
• Network computers (thin clients) are like Web terminals
• Mobile computers interconnect via wireless networks
• Networking becoming ubiquitous – even home systems
use firewalls to protect home computers from Internet
attacks
13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 4
 Mobile

• Handheld smartphones, tablets, etc.

• What is the functional difference between them and a
“traditional” laptop?
• Extra feature – more OS features (GPS, gyroscope)
• Allows new types of apps like augmented reality
• Use IEEE 802.11 wireless, or cellular data networks for
connectivity
• Leaders are Apple iOS and Google Android

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 5

 Client Server
• Client-Server Computing
• Dumb terminals supplanted by smart PCs
• Many systems now servers, responding to requests generated by
clients
• Compute-server system provides an interface to client to
request services (i.e., database)
• File-server system provides interface for clients to store and
retrieve files

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 6

 Peer-to-Peer
• Another model of distributed system
• P2P does not distinguish clients and
servers
• Instead all nodes are considered peers
• May each act as client, server or both
• Node must join P2P network
• Registers its service with central lookup
service on network, or
• Broadcast request for service and
respond to requests for service via
discovery protocol
• Examples include Napster and Gnutella,
Voice over IP (VoIP) such as Skype

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 7

 Cloud Computing
• Delivers computing, storage, even apps as a
service across a network
• Logical extension of virtualization because it uses
virtualization as the base for it functionality.
• Amazon EC2 has thousands of servers, millions of
virtual machines, petabytes of storage available across
the Internet, pay based on usage

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 8

 Cloud Computing (Cont.)
• Many types
• Public cloud – available via Internet to anyone willing to pay
• Private cloud – run by a company for the company’s own use
• Hybrid cloud – includes both public and private cloud components
• Software as a Service (SaaS) – one or more applications available via
the Internet (i.e., word processor)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) – software stack ready for application
use via the Internet (i.e., a database server)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – servers or storage available over
Internet (i.e., storage available for backup use)

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 9

 Cloud Computing (cont.)
• Cloud computing environments composed of traditional
OSes, plus VMMs, plus cloud management tools
• Internet connectivity requires security like firewalls
• Load balancers spread traffic across multiple applications

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 10

 Real-Time Embedded Systems
• Real-time embedded systems most prevalent form of
computers
• Vary considerable, special purpose, limited purpose OS, real-
time OS
• Use expanding
• Many other special computing environments as well
• Some have OSes, some perform tasks without an OS
• Real-time OS has well-defined fixed time constraints
• Processing must be done within constraint
• Correct operation only if constraints met

13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 11

 Free and Open-Source Operating Systems
• Operating systems made available in source-code format rather than just
binary closed-source and proprietary
• Counter to the copy protection and Digital Rights Management (DRM)
movement
• Started by Free Software Foundation (FSF), which has “copyleft” GNU
Public License (GPL)
• Free software and open-source software are two different ideas championed by different
groups of people
• https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html
• Examples include GNU/Linux and BSD UNIX (including core of Mac OS
X), and many more
• Can use VMM like VMware Player (Free on Windows), Virtualbox (open
source and free on many platforms - http://www.virtualbox.com)
• Use to run guest operating systems for exploration
13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 12
 well, enabling

The Study of Operating Systems

us to study how systems operated in a time of fewer CPU, memory, and storage
resources.
An extensive but incomplete list of open-source operating-system projects is available
from https://curlie.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Open_Source/

In addition, the rise of virtualization as a mainstream (and frequently free) computer

function
makes it possible to run many operating systems on top of one core system. For
example, VMware
(http://www.vmware.com) provides a free “player” for Windows on which hundreds of
free
“virtual appliances” can run. Virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.com) provides a free,
open-source
virtual machine manager on many operating systems. Using such tools, students can try
out
hundreds of operating systems without dedicated hardware.

The advent of open-source operating systems has also made it easier to make the move
from
student to operating-system developer. With some knowledge, some effort, and an
Internet
connection, a student can even create a new operating-system distribution. Just a few
years ago,
13/07/2022 Operating Systems - CO1 13
it was difficult or impossible to get access to source code. Now, such access is limited