Most people use a computer of some sort, whether it be a smart watch, smart phone, tablet, laptop or a fully fledged PC, what most people probably don’t know is that, they all need similar components in order to function. They will all have hardware consisting of a power source, a central processing unit (CPU) of some sort, a hard drive (HD) of some kind (something that enables data storage) and, random access memory (RAM) which enables data to be processed; The Importance of Knowing How to Operate Your IT Equipment and How It Works-
Can you guess what it is?
The PC is the odd one out because you will need a dedicated monitor, a keyboard and probably a mouse in order to use it. Despite their differences, they all require one more thing in order to operate;
Your device will have a piece of software (a collection of instructions and data that tell a computer how to work) installed on the HD called an operating system or (OS) for short. Without it your device would not function, so it’s probably a good idea to know a bit more about what you have in the palm of your hands and how to use it properly.
The OS is what brings everything together, it manages the hardware and any other software that is installed within the OS on your SD, kind of like your IT support guy at work, ensuring that each component has enough resources in order to do the job it is designed for, technologically speaking, operating systems are surprisingly simple, ‘on paper’ until something goes wrong or, you end up somewhere you don’t recognise or, know what you are doing.
One size fits all?
Thankfully not, so it does mean that you have a certain amount of choice, interestingly enough, though, studies show that people will normally stick with the same brand of operating system throughout their entire lifetime. The OS is usually a preinstalled piece of software loaded with various other tools and apps of which, you can uninstall or add to if you want.
For experienced users, they may even wish to upgrade or, swap out their operating system or, set the system up as a dual boot machine. For example, if you purchase a Microsoft Windows device, then you may wish to run Apple’s macOS, Linux or vice versa. There may even be a fourth contender later on this year. (Disclaimer, in no way is this article suggesting that you should try doing this and, these 3 operating systems are aimed at PC and Laptop users).
It is also possible to install a second OS would be installed as, essentially, a second computer, you would simply restart your system and choose the primary or the secondary partition depending upon what you want to do. Generally speaking, though, both users of Windows or Mac wouldn’t go anywhere near the opposition, The ‘Fanboy’ force factor is real when it comes to computers!
Mobile devices
For various reasons, mobile devices have their own version of OS’s, mainly you would see either mac software on an iPhone or Android on pretty much any other mobile device. The great thing about Android is that it is ‘open source’ which means that 3rd party developers can provide software and apps that can run on the handheld device, Apple’s mac software is locked to use only apps and software that are somehow affiliated, the downside is that you have less options or choices as to what software you can use.
