The three core responsibilities of an operating system are:
- Resource Management: The operating system manages and allocates hardware resources such as the CPU, memory, disk space, and input/output devices efficiently among various programs and users. It schedules tasks for execution and handles resource conflicts to ensure fair and optimal use of resources.
- Providing an Interface and Abstraction: The OS offers an abstraction layer that hides hardware complexity from user applications, providing standardized interfaces to interact with hardware. This includes virtualization features like virtual memory that give applications an illusion of more resources than physically available.
- Process Control and Coordination: The OS coordinates the execution of user programs by managing processes, including starting, pausing, terminating them, scheduling CPU time, and ensuring synchronization between processes. It maintains system stability, security, and error handling as part of this coordination.
These responsibilities collectively ensure effective use of hardware, simplify application development, and provide a stable and secure computing environment.
