The Role and Function of Linux
Linux is an operating system. All operating systems, including Linux, provide four key
functions in a computer system:
?– Application Platform An operating system provides applications with a
platform where they can run, managing their access to the CPU and system
memory.
?– Hardware Moderator The operating system also serves as a mediator
between running applications and the system hardware. Most applications are
not written to directly address a computer??™s hardware. Instead, most operating
systems include pre-written code that can be called from an application to
access system hardware, such as memory, hard drives, and communication
ports. This feature makes life much easier for programmers. Instead of
having to write code for doing these tasks in each and every program, they
can simply reuse this existing code provided by the operating system. It also
ensures that one application running on the system doesn??™t try to use memory
already in use by another application, and that applications don??™t use an
inordinate amount of CPU time.
?– Data Storage The operating system is also responsible for providing an efficient
and reliable means for storing information.
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