"an operating system (OS) is the "interpreter" between you and all of the software and hardware on your computer's system. Just as an interpreter helps communication among foreign diplomats, your OS translates your commands ("open file") into the 1s and 0s the computer can understand."
What is an Operating System?
"But more than merely interpreting, the OS becomes a traffic cop. If you're running two applications on your PC at the same time, the OS juggles the computer's resources, such as the "thinking time" that each application demands from the main processor, so that your spreadsheet can keep crunching numbers in the background while you clean-up an image in Photoshop. The OS also controls internal components, such as memory, external devices-monitors, modems, storage devices-and the look and feel of the user interface."
from: http://www.darwinmag.com/learn/curve/column.html?ArticleID=40
Posted by delpesco at March 27, 2004 07:36 PM