Comparing two Operating Systems (Research Paper Sample)

COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO OPERATING SYSTEMS
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Outline
I. An operating system is a set of programs which make a computer usable
Processes enable applications to run
An operating system manages all the resources of a computer
Operating systems play three main roles
Operating systems convert the physical world into a virtual world
Every operating system has a unique user interface
The battle for developing the best operating system is intense
II. Memory Management
Windows XP Memory Management
Windows XP is good at managing the memory in a computer
Windows XP requires 128 MB of RAM to run
Virtual memory influences the performance of a computer
RAM loads ‘The Non-Paged’ area and ‘The Page Tool’
Windows XP finds use for any free RAM
Linux Memory Management
Linux OS is designed to run on different architectures
The page allocator manages the physical memory
Ubuntu is capable of extending its physical memory
When a computer is left alone memory usage goes up
III. Process scheduling
Windows XP process scheduling
Earlier versions of Windows did not have the ability to multitask
Ubuntu process scheduling
Ubuntu allows Symmetric Multiprocessing to take place
Processes in Ubuntu have different properties
Scheduling of processes in Ubuntu is done in two ways
III. File Systems
Windows XP file systems
Windows XP organizes files based on FAT and NTFS file systems
NTFS file system provides more support for data recovery
File Systems in Ubuntu
Ubuntu is based on UNIX’s file system
Ubuntu enables a person to increase the size of a partition online
IV. Network and security
Windows XP security
Windows XP is built on Windows 2000 kernel
Linux security
Ubuntu supports high standard internet protocols
All user applications connect to a network through the socket interface
V. Input/ Output (I/O)
Windows XP I/O
The I/O is located in the hardware resources
People look at the I/O as a traditional way of organizing the OS
Linux I/O
Linux limits I/O access to the root user
Introduction
An operating system (OS) refers to a set of programs which make the computer usable. The programs present in the operating system make it easy to operate a computer. The common types of operating systems include Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS. These types of operating systems are used in Desktop Computers and Laptops. However, there are other types of operating systems which are used in mobile phones and they include Android, iOS, and Symbian (Smith 2005). A computer becomes useful when it has an operating system running in it. In order for a person to distinguish between the different types of operating systems, he should take time to understand the most important concepts that are used in operating systems. The main concepts applied in operating systems include kernel services and application level services. These services play a very vital role in determining how the operating systems perform when it is installed in a computer.
An operating system should be capable of managing all the resources of a computer efficiently. There are many tasks that an operating system helps a computer to accomplish. An operating system enables users to share the same computer and it applies the user interface on the desktop. It refrains users from interfering with data which that belongs to other users and also allows people to share data stored in a computer. It is also the responsibility of the operating system to schedules resources among the users. The Operating system also allows computers to communicate to other computers through networks. Moreover, it enables the computer to recover from errors, and it also organizes files so that they can be accessed easily and in a more secure manner (Parsons and Oja 2008).
Operating systems in the world today play three main roles. They ensure that processes run in low privilege. They also invoke the kernel to perform in a high privilege state. People working in offices or in their homes therefore adopt different operating systems based on their usability and their ability to handle processes and services. It is also the role of the operating system to create abstraction. Abstraction enables the operating system to hide the details of the hardware. In this perspective, the operating system hides the lower level details of the hardware thereby enabling the operating system to perform high level tasks by providing it with higher-level functions (Siever et al. 2009).
Through abstraction, the operating system is able to convert the world of physical devices into a virtual world. There are various reasons for abstraction. To begin with, it is said that the code which is needed to regulate the operations of the peripheral devices is not usually in a standard form. As a result, the operating system creates room for the incorporation of hardware drivers. The drivers then perform certain operations on behalf of programs such as facilitating the input/output operations. In addition, the operating system is able to introduce other essential functions when it interacts with the hardware. For example, the operating system makes file abstraction mechanism possible because the programs do not rely on the disks while performing their operations. Moreover, the operating system is able to enhance the security of a computer through abstraction.
Every operating system has a unique user interface. This uniqueness makes people to have different tastes for different operating systems while performing their daily operations. The main operating systems that people use are Linux and Windows. The manner in which these operating systems manage processes is different. For example, Linux is known to execute tasks at a faster rate than Windows. However, Windows is supported by many complex applications thereby influencing many people to adopt Windows while performing their daily operations. These operating systems also interpret commands differently because they are run on partitions which have different file systems. The manner in which these operating systems support application integration is also different. As a result, the operating systems are different with respect to security enhancement, memory management, and process scheduling. These differences influence the performance of the two operating systems thereby making people to have differing opinions on the type of operating system to put into their computers. There are people who rely on Linux while there are other people who rely on Windows to carry out their daily computing tasks (Siever et al. 2009).
In order to come up with the best operating system therefore, many developers are concentrating on developing an integrated user interface which will encompass the different activities that are undertaken by multiple processes when different computers are connected to a network. Therefore, when considering the type of operating system to use, people need to look at operating systems from various points of view. They should look at operating systems as resource managers and as extended machines (Smith 2005). This paper will therefore provide a comparison between Windows XP and Linux since they are the major operating systems which people use to meet their daily computing needs.
Memory Management
Windows XP Memory Management
Windows XP is said to be good at managing the memory in a computer. There are people who believe that using third party memory optimizers is a good idea. However, most of these programs do not work at all. Windows XP is one of the most successful products that Microsoft has ever made. The overall performance of the operating system is good. This is because Windows XP boots and resumes from hibernation faster. It also has applications which are highly responsive to commands. These conditions make a user to be very satisfied while using a computer that runs Windows XP. In case a person is using a computer that meets Microsoft’s minimum requirements, Windows XP performs optimally (Microsoft 2005).
The recommended random access memory that a computer running Windows XP should have is 128 megabytes. With this memory size, Windows XP has been able to stand ahead of other previous versions of Windows operating systems. The performance of the operating system becomes better when a person adds more resources such as memory-intensive media applications. Many people are normally tempted to increase the memory of their computers in order to improve their performance. The easiest way to improve the performance of a computer is by adding memory to it. It is said that although the recommended memory to run Windows XP efficiently is 128 megabytes, the operating system has been observed to perform better than previous versions of Windows. For example, Windows XP has been observed to run more efficiently on 64 MB of RAM than Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME). Windows XP is therefore regarded as a satisfactory upgrade for people using Windows ME on their lower end computers (Sechrest and Fortin 2001).
The virtual memory created in Windows XP plays a very important role in determining how a computer system should perform. For example, when a program is given commands on an Intel CPU, it can use up to 4 GB of the available memory in a computer. The memory used by the running program is usually greater than the RAM of the computer. Therefore, the hardware allows programs to run continuously until they use up all the 4GB of virtual memory that is created by the operating system. The parts of a program that are loaded into the physical RAM are the ones which facilitate the creation of virtual memory which then enables programs to run efficiently in a computer. ...