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CC101#6 - Module #6

Introduction to Computing (Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology)

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MODULE 6 of 10 |
Operating Systems and Software |

Hardware vs. Software

Concerning computer systems, the physical and tangible part is called the HARDWARE;
whereas, the graphical but intangible components like system software, application software, and
programming software that need to be installed on a computer are the three types of the so-called
SOFTWARE.

You must have both hardware and software; meaning, all the necessary components to make it
work. It’s just like a human body with a soul or it is more proper to say a soul with a body to make
alive. The key difference between hardware and software is that hardware is the felt objects or
touchable parts while the software is the program or sets of programs.

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Difference Between Hardware and Software:

HARDWARE SOFTWARE
Physical parts that cause the processing of data. A set of instructions that tells a computer exactly what to do.
It is manufactured. It is developed and engineered.
It cannot perform any task without software. It cannot be executed without hardware.
Physical electronic devices that can be seen and touched. We can see and also use them but can’t touch them.
4 Categories: input, output, storage, & processing devices. 3 Main types: System, Application & Programming software.
It cannot be affected by computer viruses. It can be affected by computer viruses.
It cannot be transferred electronically through a network. It can be transferred via the network.
It can be replaced with a new one if damaged. It can be reinstalled or recovered from its backup copy.
e.g. Keyboard, Monitor, Mouse, Printer, HDD, RAM, etc. e.g. MS Office, WPS, Chrome, Photoshop, MySQL, etc.

Types of Software

Software is the program that runs the computer for a specific purpose. There are three major
types of software but some sources present four types that include the Driver Software, some also
include sub-types such as Freeware, Shareware, Open Source Software, Closed Source Software,
and Utility Software. But I will just present to you the common and most important software.

1. System Software. It manages the functions and events of hardware and software. It is the
most basic type of software in any computer system, which is essential for other programs,
applications, and the whole computer system to function. It controls the operations of
computer hardware and provides an environment or platform for all the other types of
software to work in e.g. Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Ubuntu, Device Drivers, etc.

2. Application Software. It is what helps the user perform specific tasks. They are non-
essential software that is installed and run, depending upon the requirements, in the
environment provided by the system software, e.g. MS Office, WPS, OpenOffice, Media
Players, MS Access, educational software, media development software, Antivirus
software, etc.

3. Programming Software. It is used to write, test, debug, and develop other software
programs and applications. The various programming language editors such as Eclipse – a
Java language editor – appear under this category. They are used for creating both the
system as well as application software, e.g. Java, PHP, Python, Visual Studio, sketchware,
compilers, debuggers, Integrated Development Environment (IDE), etc.
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4. Sub-types of Software. Aside from the abovementioned main types of software, there are
many other subtypes.

4.1. Freeware – is a type of software that anyone can download from the Internet and use
for free, e.g. Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, uTorrent, etc.

4.2. Shareware – is usually distributed for free on a trial basis. It can be shared without a
violation of any laws. They usually stop working or prompt the user to purchase the
full version, once the trial period expires, e.g. Winzip, Winrar, etc.)

4.3. Registry Cleaners – When you install a lot of software, your computer’s registry
becomes clogged. Registry cleaners are used to clean up or delete all the invalid
registry entries which have the benefit of speeding up your computer, e.g. TuneUp
Utilities, IObit Advanced SystemCare, etc.)

4.4. Content Control Software – This kind of software allows you to control the content
that can be accessed by a user on a computer. They are mostly used for restricting
access over the Internet, e.g. K9 Web Protection, PGSurfer, etc.

4.5. Project Management Software – As its name suggests, project management

software is a software package that helps multiple users to work on a project
simultaneously. It allows them to schedule events, network with the other users,
allocate resources, etc., e.g. Microsoft Office, Project Server, HyperOffice, WPS, etc.

4.6. Utility Software – These are usually small programs that help the management of the
hardware and the application software installed on a computer, e.g. Disk
defragmenters, Disk cleaners, etc.

4.7. Open Source Software – This is a type of software for which the source code is
available to all users (open). As such, anyone can make changes to it and release their
new version, e.g. Linux, Android OS, OpenOffice, etc.

4.8. Web Browsers – Browsers are programs that allow you to surf or browse web pages
on the Internet, e.g. Edge, Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, etc.)

With the fast and constant advancements in the field of software engineering, every day, new
software, and applications are being developed rapidly. Nowadays, many newer types of software
would have been developed.
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Microcomputers Operating Systems

An operating system (OS) is the most important software that runs on a computer upon booting,
the process of starting the computer. It manages the computer's memory and processes, as well as
all its software and hardware. It also allows you to communicate with the computer without knowing
how to speak the computer's language. Without an operating system, a computer is useless.

The OS controls every connected device (input & output), every main memory allocation, every
file storage, every nanosecond of data processing time, and every network connection, including
exemptions (errors) and system interruptions. It controls who can use the system and how through
its Graphical User Interface (GUI pronounced as gooey). In short, it acts as a controller, nothing
happens without it. A GUI uses a combination of technologies and devices to provide a platform
that users can interact with, for the tasks of gathering and producing information.

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The GUI is presented (displayed) on the computer screen. It is the result of processed user input
and usually the main interface for human-machine interaction. The touch user interfaces popular on
small mobile devices are an overlay of the visual output to the visual input as shown below.

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Regardless of size and complexity, every OS can be represented by a pyramid showing how its
five major functions (called managers) work together. The (1) memory manager, the (2) processor
manager, the (3) device manager, and the (4) file manager form the pyramid's base; and (5) network
manager as well. The user interface (GUI), the part of the OS that communicates with the user, is
supported by the other four or five managers.

When a computer user commands using the keyboard or by clicking the mouse, the OS must
ensure that command to be executed. If the execution fails or an error occurs, the OS must give the
exemption or error code through the monitor, explaining the error.

PLATFORM OPERATING SYSTEM

Microcomputers Linux, Macintosh OS, MS-DOS, Windows OSes
Minicomputers Linux, OpenVMS Alpha, UNIX
Mainframe computers IBM OS/390, IBM OS/400, UNIX
Supercomputers IRIX, UNICOS
Workstations HP-UX, Sun Solaris, UNIX
Networks Novell NetWare, UNIX, Windows NT, Windows 2000 & Server
Handheld computers Microsoft CE, Palm OS

One of the first known and most popular OSes on workstations and other high-end computer
systems for the Microcomputer system is UNIX. One recently developed UNIX-like operating
system is Linux, which works on a wide variety of vendor systems, including Intel microcomputers.
UNIX systems also have a graphical user interface (GUI) like Microsoft Windows which provides
an easy to use environment. UNIX is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating
systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, development starting in the 1970s at the Bell
Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others.

Types of Operating Systems

The three most common operating systems for personal computers are Microsoft Windows,
macOS, and Linux. I included the fourth OS for Android devices.

Microsoft Windows. Windows OS is created in the mid-1980s. There have been series of
versions of Windows, but the most recent ones are Windows 10 (released in 2015). Windows OS
comes pre-loaded on most new PCs, making it the most popular operating system in the world.
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| Kindly list down the different versions of Windows OS before the recent one:
WINDOWS OS VERSIONS RELEASED DATE

Very good!

macOS. The OS created by Apple previously called OS X, comes preloaded on all Macintosh
computers also called Macs. Some of the specific versions include Mojave (released in 2018), High
Sierra (2017), and Sierra (2016).

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macOS users account for less than 10% of global OSes compared to Windows users having
more than 80%. One reason for this is that Apple computers tend to be more expensive. However,
many people do prefer the look and feel of macOS over Windows (StatCounter Global Stats, n.d.).

Linux (pronounced LINN-ux). It is a family of open-source OSes, which means they can be
modified and distributed by anyone around the world. This is different from proprietary software
like Windows, which can only be modified by the company that owns it. The advantages of Linux
are that it is free, and there are many different distributions – or versions – you can choose from.

Linux users account for less than 2% of global operating systems. However, most servers run
Linux because it is relatively easy to customize (StatCounter Global Stats, n.d.).

Operating systems for mobile devices. These OSes are designed specifically for mobile
devices. Examples of mobile operating systems include Google Android and Apple iOS. In the
screenshot below, you can see iOS running on an iPad. Generally, these OSes are not as fully
featured as those made for desktop and laptop computers, and they are not able to run all the same
software. However, you can still do a lot of things with them, like watch movies, browse the Web,
manage your calendar, and play games.

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Loading the Operating System

Technically, the word called BOOT means ‘startup’ in our computer system, computer’s BIOS
or perhaps our system’s hard drive, etc. upon pressing the power button. It comes from the word
bootstrapping, which originally appears in the early 19th century in the United States.

Commonly, bootstrapping mainly pertains to a self-starting process of your computer that does
not need any external input command to perform itself. So, technically speaking, computer user
starts using the word called booting – a whole loading the software to the memory process – more
popular than the word bootstrapping.

What is the Booting Process anyway? This process will ready the computer system for
performing any task. From switched ON the computer system up to displaying the operating system
prompt, all are the tasks performed by the booting.

Booting process of computer step by step:

Generally, booting includes several tasks to be performed to make the computer system ready.
These tasks can be sequenced as:

1. When the power gets ON, series of tests will be performed e.g. RAM test (POST test).
2. if not error, a boot loader program checks all hardware (H/W peripherals) attached to a
computer system such as a keyboard, hard disk, CPU, etc.
3. After listing all hardware, the boot loader program searches for the bootable OS in a
secondary storage device (usually HDD). If it is found, it calls the main program of the
operating system and loads the OS into the RAM.
4. After successfully loading the OS, its operating system prompts. If the OS is DOS (the old
one), then the prompt may be A:\>, or C:\>. If it is Windows then a desktop is displayed
with Start Button.
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In a more technical approach, in your computer system, the whole booting process is performed
by the chip called BIOS-Chip, the only chip in your computer responsible for the whole system
startup process upon pushing the power button. This process takes about 10 seconds which involves
accomplishing a POST, finding, and preparing peripheral devices, and then finding and loading an
operating system. The process of hibernating or sleeping on your computer does not involve
booting.

Now we try to investigate the Booting Process:

Upon pushing the power button and the electricity flows into the circuitry, it boots the
motherboard’s BIOS Chip and after that, your system bios starts a short time POST (power-on self-
test) service, checking the BIOS chip and then tests the CMOS RAM, if the POST can’t find any
CMOS battery failure then it continuous to initialize the CPU and then checking every external or
internal connected hardware parts like a mouse, keyboard, ram, hard disk, etc. to ensure that they all
are working properly together.

All components - its BIOS, OS, and hardware components must all be working accurately to
boot a computer system successfully. If anyone of these fails, then the system boot failure error
displays on the computer’s screen.

After when the power-on self-tests completes, the bios typically looks to the CMOS chip to tell
it where to find the OS (from the active primary HDD), then CMOS look for the appropriate boot
drive to find the OS’s boot record and when the CMOS found it, the bios starts to load the boot
loader to starts your operating system.

A Bootloader is a computer program that is responsible for managing and starting an operating
system software of the computer after when the POST gets completed. Once the BIOS initializes
the operating system, it starts to copy its files into the computer memory and after that, the OS
basically takes control over the whole booting process.
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To explain furthermore about the bootloader, as previously mentioned, the stage of the boot
process is a little more involved than the previous steps, primarily due to the additional complexity
of reading the filesystem. The bootloader must also obtain information about the underlying
machine hardware (either via the BIOS or on its own) to correctly load the desired operating system
from the correct partition and provide any additional files or data that might be needed. It must also
read its own configuration file from a regular file stored on the boot partition’s filesystem, so it needs
to at the very least have full read support for whatever filesystem it resides on.

Initiate filesystem access. Before anything else can happen, when the bootloader is first to run
it must load and run the primitive filesystem “drivers” that give it the ability to read, at the very
least, the filesystem it is located on. Since it is unable to read the filesystem before this, by necessity
the code that provides this functionality must be compiled into the core bootloader file itself.
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Load and read the configuration file(s). With support for the filesystem loaded, the
bootloader can now read the list of operating systems from the disk, and the event that there are
multiple operating systems specified, prepare it for display.

Load and run supporting modules. For bootloaders that are not wholly self-contained (such
as NTLDR and GRUB 2), the bootloader now loads any supporting modules or helper programs
(such as NTDETECT.COM) from the disk. The list of modules to load can be specified in the
configuration file that was just read or hard-coded/compiled into the bootloader itself. Normally,
each module will be executed as it is located and loaded from the disk.

Display the boot menu. At this point, with all the relevant configuration in hand, the
bootloader can display what is commonly known as the boot menu on the screen. If multiple
operating systems are installed, it is via the boot menu that the user of the computer can navigate a
list of operating systems and choose which to load. From here, certain bootloaders also make it
possible to specify run-time options, such as whether to load the selected operating system in safe
mode.

Load the OS kernel. Once the user’s selection has been recorded, the bootloader moves on to
the last and final stage of the boot process. Depending on the OS and the type of kernel, the
bootloader will load the kernel image from the path specified in the configuration file (with the help
of any submodules, if needed) into the memory. It then instructs the CPU to JMP to a certain location
within the newly-loaded kernel and begins executing from there.

Two Types of Booting

| There are two ways of initiating the booting process:

BOOTING TYPE BRIEF DESCRIPTION/ PROCESS

When the power is switched OFF or the computer system OFF

Cold Booting or
Soft Booting the computer system is shut down and again turned ON by pressing the
POWER BUTTON, then cold booting is performed.

When pressing the RESET BUTTON, CTRL, ALT, and DEL keys are
Warm Booting or press simultaneously, then warm booting is performed
Hard booting The first step of the booting process (memory test 0 is skipped, when
this booting is applied)

Nice work!
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Network Operating System (NOS)

A Network Operating System (NOS) is a computer operating system that facilitates connecting
and communicate various autonomous computers, also known as nodes or terminals, over a
network. An autonomous node is an independent computer that has its own local memory,
hardware, and OS. It is self-capable to perform operations and processing for a single user. They
can either run the same or different OS.

The noticeable features of NOS are:

• Basic support for operating systems like protocol and processor support, hardware
detection, and multiprocessing.
• Printer and application sharing.
• Common file system and database sharing.
• Network security capabilities such as user
authentication and access control.
• Directory
• Backup and web services.
• Internetworking.

Common tasks associated with NOS include:

• User administration
• System maintenance activities like backup
• Tasks associated with file management
• Security monitoring on all resources in the network
• Setting priority to print jobs in the network

There are two types of components such as hardware and software components.

Hardware is some devices which are physically connected like Server Machine or Computer
(M/C), Peer M/C, Communication medium – Guided media: coaxial cable, fiber optic cables, and
Unguided media: microwaves, infrared waves, Connecting Terminals like Routers, Bridges, Hubs,
Repeaters, Gateways, Switches, hub, Network Interface Card, and Shared printers. While some
programs which are installed on the network machines are Networking Operating System like Unix,
Linux, Windows Servers (2000-2019), Windows 98, Windows XP, Protocol Suite like OSI Model
(Open System Interconnections), and TCP / IP Model.

We will have a further discussion in the next module regarding the Network Operating System
Software, its types, functionality, and others.
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| Differentiate the three common Operating Systems according to the following:

OS HEAD-TO-HEAD DIFFERENCES (BRIEF ONLY)

FILE STRUCTURE

INTERCHANGEABLE
Windows
INTERFACE

REGISTRY

FILE STRUCTURE

INTERCHANGEABLE
macOS
INTERFACE

REGISTRY

FILE STRUCTURE

INTERCHANGEABLE
Linux
INTERFACE

REGISTRY

Very Good!
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| LEARNING SUMMARY
In this module, I learned that…

Evident with my…

In this module, I need to know more about the concepts of…

| REFLECTION
You already had familiarized yourself with the different OSes, particularly on NOSes.
Your mother is planning to utilize a Home Network for education purposes for you and
your siblings, what are you going to recommend, the usual OS or the NOS for your
network Server? Why?

KUDOS! We are done with our 6th module!

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| REFERENCES
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• Franklin, 2019, “Software 101: A Complete Guide To Different Types Of Software”, retrieved
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https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/chemistry/compounds-and-
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• Madhur Tj, 2016, “What is Boot, Booting and Bootable Devices?”, retrieved September 13, 2020
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• NeoSmart, n.d., “The BIOS/MBR Boot Process,” retrieved September 13, 2020 from
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• Admin AfterAcademy, 2020., “What is a Network Operating System?”, retrieved September 13,
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• Rouse, n.d., “network operating system (NOS),” retrieved September 13, 2020 from
https://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/network-operating-system
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