general features of operating systems an operating system is a master control program which controls the functions of the computer system as a whole and the running of application programs. all computers do not use the same operating systems. it is there fore important to assess the operating systems used on a particular model before initial commitment because some software is only designed to run under the control of specific operating systems. some operating systems are adopted as "industry standards" and these are the ones which should be evaluated because they normally have a good software base. the reason for this is that software houses are willing to expand resources on the development of application packages for machines functioning under the control of an operating system which is widely used the cost of software is likely to be lower in such circumstances as the development costs are spread over a greater number of users. both actual and potential. mainframe computers usually process several application programs concurrently. switching from one to the other. for the purpose of increasing processing productivity. this is known as multiprogramming(multi-tasking in the context of microcomputers): which requires a powerful operating system incorporation work scheduling facilities to control the switching between programs. this entails reading in data for one program while the processor is performing computations on another and printing our results on net another. in multi-user environment an operating system is required to control terminal operations on a shared access basis as only one user can access the system at any moment of time.such systems also require a system for record locking and unlocking ,to prevent one user attempting to read a record while another user is updating it.for instance.the first user is allocated control to write to a record(or file in some instances) and other users are denied access until the record is updated and unlocked.
general features of operating systems an operating system is a master control program which controls the functions of the computer system as a whole and the running of application programs. all computers do not use the same operating systems. it is there fore important to assess the operating systems used on a particular model before initial commitment because some software is only designed to run under the control of specific operating systems. some operating systems are adopted as "industry standards" and these are the ones which should be evaluated because they normally have a good software base. the reason for this is that software houses are willing to expand resources on the development of application packages for machines functioning under the control of an operating system which is widely used the cost of software is likely to be lower in such circumstances as the development costs are spread over a greater number of users. both actual and potential. mainframe computers usually