Fundamental Concepts That Underlie Operating Systems
Understanding the Fundamentals of Operating Systems Operating systems (OS) serve as the backbone of modern computing, providing the essential software that manages hardware and software resources in various devices. They play a crucial role in ensuring that all components of a computer work together efficiently and effectively. For anyone pursuing a career in technology, particularly in fields like data engineering, grasping the fundamental concepts underlying operating systems is vital. At the heart of any operating system are several core functions. First and foremost is process management, which involves overseeing the creation, scheduling, and termination of processes. A process is essentially an instance of a program that is currently being executed, and its state can change through various stages, such as new, ready, running, waiting, or terminated. Each process is represented by a Process Control Block (PCB), a data structure that contains essential information like the pr...