IT Management OS Systems History OS Systems History and Recommendations for Use

"An OS is a program that controls the execution of application programs and acts as an interface between applications and the computer hardware," and is thus a crucial part in modern technology within a business context (Stallings 2009 p 51). Such systems help run software, provide access to needed devices, control user access to files and systems, as well as catching and responding to errors and other harmful objects like viruses or malware. The OS makes computers easy-to-use and convenient for users of all types, from the most experienced to those with little experience at all. Essentially, the user is most often not trained or interested in manipulating the actual hardware of their device. Thus, the OS helps them use the software without having to go further into the hardware and allows software developed by a programmer to be used effectively and with ease. It helps establish layers of communication and management that allows for the most efficiency in processing and user access (Ritchie 2003). The OS also results in the optimal levels of efficiency that the end user can experience, with the potential to evolve into whatever that user may need in the future. Overall, the OS helps manage computer functions and processes, which helps allow less experienced users still get the maximum output of their devices. Thus, the right OS is extremely important, because it must match up to individual business and user needs in order to provide the maximum amount of benefits.

Operating systems have come a long way from the modest beginnings. As technology and knowledge of computers continue to evolve, OS systems are becoming more complex and intricate, allowing greater functioning with ease for the end user. Back in the earliest days of computers, in the 1940s and 1950s,...

This resulted in end users needing to be heavily trained and reliable in order to properly handle their device. However, much has changed since those earliest days. One aspect that has evolved significantly has been serial processing. In the past, scheduling had to be done manually, and users would have to deal with a number of potential problems and lagged updating. This scheduling revolved around a single program called a job in order to load and save the source program into the computer's limited memory.
However, evolving technology lead to more efficient processing. First, there were simple batch systems which were first implemented by GM in the late 1950s. These systems relied on software known as a monitor, where "the user no longer has direct access to the processer," (Stallings 209 p 56). Rather, the end user would compile a list of scheduling tasks for the computer to do, and then insert a card into the computer with its allocated tasks to be implemented and controlled by the monitor. In this set up, the monitor controlled the more complicated aspects of communicating software with hardware, which allowed the user greater efficiency and less wasted processing time.

Yet, the role of the user was limited in working in a user mode, in order to protect aspects of the memory that are under the monitor's control. This eventually led to multiprogrammed batched systems, which combined job sequencing into batches, making the processing even more efficient by increasing the computer's ability to multi-task. These systems reduced processing time by combining jobs in single action steps, allowing the computer to spend less time waiting for each one to be completed. This style of processing ultimately led to the creating of OS systems as we know them…