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Operating System - Linux

Linux is an open-source operating system based on UNIX, designed for compatibility and free to use. It consists of three main components: the kernel, system libraries, and system utilities, with distinct modes for kernel and user operations. Key features include portability, multi-user support, multiprogramming, a hierarchical file system, and security measures.

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Kenneth Ngum
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1 views

Operating System - Linux

Linux is an open-source operating system based on UNIX, designed for compatibility and free to use. It consists of three main components: the kernel, system libraries, and system utilities, with distinct modes for kernel and user operations. Key features include portability, multi-user support, multiprogramming, a hierarchical file system, and security measures.

Uploaded by

Kenneth Ngum
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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11/26/22, 5:25 AM Operating System - Linux

Operating System - Linux

Linux is one of popular version of UNIX operating System. It is open source as its source code is
freely available. It is free to use. Linux was designed considering UNIX compatibility. Its
functionality list is quite similar to that of UNIX.

Components of Linux System


Linux Operating System has primarily three components

Kernel − Kernel is the core part of Linux. It is responsible for all major activities of this
operating system. It consists of various modules and it interacts directly with the underlying
hardware. Kernel provides the required abstraction to hide low level hardware details to
system or application programs.

System Library − System libraries are special functions or programs using which
application programs or system utilities accesses Kernel's features. These libraries
implement most of the functionalities of the operating system and do not requires kernel
module's code access rights.
System Utility − System Utility programs are responsible to do specialized, individual level
tasks.

Kernel Mode vs User Mode

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Kernel component code executes in a special privileged mode called kernel mode with full
access to all resources of the computer. This code represents a single process, executes in
single address space and do not require any context switch and hence is very efficient and fast.
Kernel runs each processes and provides system services to processes, provides protected
access to hardware to processes.

Support code which is not required to run in kernel mode is in System Library. User programs
and other system programs works in User Mode which has no access to system hardware and
kernel code. User programs/ utilities use System libraries to access Kernel functions to get
system's low level tasks.

Basic Features
Following are some of the important features of Linux Operating System.

Portable − Portability means software can works on different types of hardware in same
way. Linux kernel and application programs supports their installation on any kind of
hardware platform.

Open Source − Linux source code is freely available and it is community based
development project. Multiple teams work in collaboration to enhance the capability of Linux
operating system and it is continuously evolving.

Multi-User − Linux is a multiuser system means multiple users can access system
resources like memory/ ram/ application programs at same time.

Multiprogramming − Linux is a multiprogramming system means multiple applications can


run at same time.
Hierarchical File System − Linux provides a standard file structure in which system files/
user files are arranged.
Shell − Linux provides a special interpreter program which can be used to execute
commands of the operating system. It can be used to do various types of operations, call
application programs. etc.
Security − Linux provides user security using authentication features like password
protection/ controlled access to specific files/ encryption of data.

Architecture
The following illustration shows the architecture of a Linux system −

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The architecture of a Linux System consists of the following layers −

Hardware layer − Hardware consists of all peripheral devices (RAM/ HDD/ CPU etc).

Kernel − It is the core component of Operating System, interacts directly with hardware,
provides low level services to upper layer components.
Shell − An interface to kernel, hiding complexity of kernel's functions from users. The shell
takes commands from the user and executes kernel's functions.

Utilities − Utility programs that provide the user most of the functionalities of an operating
systems.

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