Types of Operating Systems

Operating systems can be classified into the following classes.

1. Personal computing
• Early operating systems for personal computers were very basic. however more advanced operating systems have been developed incorporating features previously only available on mainframes.
• An example of a personal computiong operating system is Windows 2000.
2. Workgroups
• To keep pace with today's high tech society, the technologh of the future must support a world in which network usage increases at a dramatic rate.
• Network is for sharing resources (e.g. printers) and information (e.g. jivi)
• In order to solve this problem it is necessary to develop powerful and flexible operating systems. An example is UNIX.
3. Enterprise
• Enterprise operating systems are responsible for controlling expensive hardware such as mainframes and supercomputers.
• A few years ago many professionals were predicting the end of enterprise software due to growth in small server. However high end hardware has proven to be valuable as it provides very high processing speeds and storage. An example of enterprise operating system is LINUX.
4. Consumer
• Consumer operating systems allow individuals to exploit the most out of their personal figital assistants(PDA's) mobile phones, digital cameras, TV's and other appliances.
• An example of a consumer operating system is Windows CE.Net.

System software has direct control and access to the computer hardware and memory locations and controls the hardware as well as consists of low level programs that interact with computers at a basic level. To make the application software do a task, operating system such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS are the main example.