Unit 4
Operating System
- Software designed to control the hardware of a specific data-processing system in order to allow users and application programs to make use of it.
BIOS
– The set of routines stored in read-only memory that enable a computer to start the operating system and to communicate with the various devices in the system, such as disk drives, keyboard, monitor, printer, and communications ports.
cold boot
- A boot from power off.
warm boot
- The act or process of restarting a computer without turning off the power. A warm boot erases everything in RAM and then reloads the operating system into RAM.
Partitioning
- A section of storage space on a hard disk.
GUI
- a user interface based on graphics (icons and pictures and menus) instead of text; uses a mouse as well as a keyboard as an input device [syn: graphical user interface
Shell
- A program that works with the operating system as a command processor, used to enter commands and initiate their execution
open-source software
- programs whose licenses give users the freedom to run the program for any purpose, to study and modify the program, and to redistribute copies of either the original or modified program (without having to pay royalties to previous developers)