operating system meaning

• Noun: operating system
  1. (computer science) software that controls the execution of computer programs and may provide various services
     - OS

  Derived forms: operating systems

  Type of: computer software, package, software, software package, software program, software system

  Part of: platform

  Encyclopedia: Operating system

• 
  [Business]
  noun [C] (abbr OS)

  (IT )

  the main program on a computer, that controls how the computer works and allows other programs to run:

  All our computers use Windows XP as their operating system.

• 
  [Electronics]
  Abbreviation, OS. In a computer, a set of programs that oversee the functioning of the hardware and application software. It works with the basic input/output system (BIOS).
  
• 
  [Computer]
  <operating system> (OS) The low-level software which handles the interface to peripheral hardware, schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user when no application program is running.
  
  The OS may be split into a kernel which is always present and various system programs which use facilities provided by the kernel to perform higher-level house-keeping tasks, often acting as servers in a client-server relationship.
  
  Some would include a graphical user interface and window system as part of the OS, others would not. The operating system loader, BIOS, or other firmware required at boot time or when installing the operating system would generally not be considered part of the operating system, though this distinction is unclear in the case of a rommable operating system such as RISC OS.
  
  The facilities an operating system provides and its general design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up around the machines on which it runs.
  
  Example operating systems include 386BSD, AIX, AOS, Amoeba, Angel, Artemis microkernel, BeOS, Brazil, COS, CP/M, CTSS, Chorus, DACNOS, DOSEXEC 2, GCOS, GEORGE 3, GEOS, ITS, KAOS, Linux, LynxOS, MPV, MS-DOS, MVS, Mach, Macintosh operating system, Microsoft Windows, MINIX, Multics, Multipop-68, Novell NetWare, OS-9, OS/2, Pick, Plan 9, QNX, RISC OS, STING, System V, System/360, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, TRUSIX, TWENEX, TYMCOM-X, Thoth, Unix, VM/CMS, VMS, VRTX, VSTa, VxWorks, WAITS.
  
  
  
  Usenet newsgroup: comp.os.research.

• basic operating system:    [Computer]<oper ...
• convergent technologies operating system:    [Computer]<oper ...
• disk operating system:    Noun: disk operati ...

Examples

1. the transplant of embedded operating system based on arm
2. supported pc operating systems for installation
3. there are multiple companies with operating systems
4. gets the version of the computer s operating system
5. at the operating system where the application runs