Operating systems are collections of software programs that interact with hardware and allow it to be used. The earliest systems arose in the 1950’s with batch-processing systems running single jobs at a time and data being turned out in groups (or batches). During the 1960’s MIT developed the CTSS system, which IBM used to develop OS/360 for their System/360 line of computers, a multi-batch system featuring a standard program interface and file management system. They later introduced Multiple Visual Storage (MVS) in 1974, which greatly enhanced visual storage and memory, allowing for more complicated programs to be run.
Virtual machine operating system allows multi-users to see a “single machine as several real machines” by allowing numbers of an operating system to run at the same time. This is useful to save any files for backup and prevent any mistaken failures. The other kind of operating system, VAX Virtual Memory System (VMS), was made for solely VAX family of minicomputers. Vax was useful that it was flexible among the users to develop software due to its easy commands, scalable, and balanced features.
A group at Bell Labs developed the Unix operating system in the early 1970s. It was able to multitask and host multiple users and was written in the C programming language. This language made Unix portable and popular, initially with the US government and later with a broader user base. Unix had three levels of computing targeted at different types of users. In the 1980s IBM introduced a personal computer, outsourcing the software development to Microsoft, which reaped huge benefits from the partnership. The software went through multiple stage of development, which eventually led to popular personal computers that ran on Microsoft software. Now, Microsoft windows rather than the original MS/DOS system is used on personal computers.
Paragraphs written by (in order) Charles, Sean, Georgia, and Gabriel. Compiled and posted by Georgia.
Through O’Reagan’s article, we are demonstrated to the basis of operating systems. In the simplest of terms, the operating system allows for the connection between the operating’s software and hardware to be used together, in order for the computer’s functions to be utilized. The reading also demonstrates the progress of the system over the course of time since the 1950s, with the most predominant change being its capabilities, as with it’s expanded memory storage and run multiple programs. However, with such advances, required a great number of years in order to reach the capabilities of today’s computers. Different computer companies each worked on their own forms of the operating system, and with each one, while not being completely at full ability, each one was a step closer to the operating system of the present day.