Title: 1.3.2 What's an O.S?
Course: Technology Applications

O.S. = Operating System

An operating system, or OS, is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer hardware, or parts. Without a computer operating system, a computer would be useless; it would be a collection of circuits that would not know how to work with each other to perform your commands or tasks.

Types

As computers have progressed and developed so have the types of operating systems. Below is a basic list of the different types of operating systems and a few examples.

- Windows = Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista
- MacIntosh= Leopard, Snow Leopard
- Linux
- MS-DOS

See a good explanation of O.S.s in Wikipedia.