1.7 System Software

Question 1

What is the purpose of the Operating System?

Answer 1

Runs the computer

Manages the hardware and applications

Question 2

What are device drivers?

Answer 2

Communicate with the peripherals and internal hardware

Question 3

What is the purpose of the user interface?

Answer 3

Allows the user to interact with the device.
This can be a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
which are visual and easy for someone to use
Or a command-line interface
Where the user needs to type in commands to make it work.

Question 4

What is multitasking?

Answer 4

When you have more than one program open and running at the same time

The processor allocates a small amount of time to each process and cycles between them

Question 5

What are File and disk management?

Answer 5

Where the operating system manages the movement, editing, and deletion of data.

Question 6

What are User accounts?

Answer 6

The operating system manages the accounts of the

different users.

Question 7

What is Utility software?

Answer 7

Utilities are the programs that help maintain and configure a program.

Question 8

What is defragmentation?

Answer 8

Defragging magnetic hard drive groups all of the files for each program together and all of the free space together.
This makes it read and write quicker.

Question 9

What is the purpose of backup utilities?

Answer 9

Schedules and manages backups.

Question 10

What are incremental backups?

Answer 10

Only files since the last backup are saved

Question 11

What are full backups?

Answer 11

All data is backed up

Question 12

What is compression?

Answer 12

Reduces the size of large files so that they take up less space.

Question 13

What is Open-Source Software?

Answer 13

It’s usually free and the source code is available so it can be adapted for individual needs

Question 14

What is Proprietary Software?

Answer 14

Usually has to be paid for Only the compiled code is released so it cannot be edited

Question 15

What is fragmentation?

Answer 15

Fragmentation is where a file is stored non-contiguously on a disk.

Question 16

What is meant by paging?

Answer 16

Paging is a method of memory management that breaks up memory into fixed-size blocks.

Question 17

What are the differences between command lines and GUIs?

Answer 17

Command lines are less resource-heavy than GUIs

GUIs are optimized for specific input methods

Question 18

How can device drivers help fix bugs?

Answer 18

Developers and device manufacturers can release updates to device drivers in order to improve their performance and fix bugs

Question 19

What can the Operating System do?

Answer 19

Provide a user interface
Provide file management and disk management
Manage system security and user accounts

Question 20

How does the OS allow multitasking?

Answer 20

By managing resources

Question 21

What are the steps so the OS can manage resources?

Answer 21

When an application is opened the OS moves the necessary parts of the application to memory

Question 22

What are the advantages of Open source software?

Answer 22

Usually free
Encourges collaboration
The software can be adapted by users to fit their needs

Question 23

What are the disadvantages of Open source software?

Answer 23

Could be buggy
Unpatched security holes
Small projects may not get regular updates

Question 24

What are the advantages of Proprietary software?

Answer 24

Comes with warranties, documentation and customer support
Should be well-tested and reliable
Usually cheaper for companies than developing their own custom-built software

Question 25

Why do hard drives become fragmented?

Answer 25

As files are moved, deleted, and change the size, lots of small gaps begin to appear on the disk.
When writing files to the disk, the OS splits files into smaller blocks to fill up the gaps

Question 26

What are the effects of a fragmented hard drive?

Answer 26

Read/write time is slower has read/write head has to move back and forth across the disk

Question 27

How does defragmentation work?

Answer 27

The defragmenter re-organizes data on the hard drive to put fragmented files back together.
Also moves files to collect all the free space together

Question 28

What is the purpose of device drivers?

Answer 28

It translates the operating system instructions to print the document into a series of instructions which a specific piece of hardware will understand

Question 29

What are the steps of memory mangement?

Answer 29

When programs are loaded, the operating system decides where they are held in memory

Over time the memory becomes fragmented as programs are loaded and closed because they use different amount of memory

Operating system must keep track of different program fragments

Question 30

Why should solid states not be fragmented?

Answer 30

As it is unnecessary as they have no moving parts

Also reduces their lifespan