1.7 System Software Flashcards
What is the purpose of the Operating System?
Runs the computer
Manages the hardware and applications
What are device drivers?
Communicate with the peripherals and internal hardware
What is the purpose of the user interface?
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.
What is multitasking?
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
What are File and disk management?
Where the operating system manages the movement, editing, and deletion of data.
What are User accounts?
The operating system manages the accounts of the
different users.
What is Utility software?
Utilities are the programs that help maintain and configure a program.
What is defragmentation?
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.
What is the purpose of backup utilities?
Schedules and manages backups.
What are incremental backups?
Only files since the last backup are saved
What are full backups?
All data is backed up
What is compression?
Reduces the size of large files so that they take up less space.
What is Open-Source Software?
It’s usually free and the source code is available so it can be adapted for individual needs
What is Proprietary Software?
Usually has to be paid for Only the compiled code is released so it cannot be edited
What is fragmentation?
Fragmentation is where a file is stored non-contiguously on a disk.
What is meant by paging?
Paging is a method of memory management that breaks up memory into fixed-size blocks.
What are the differences between command lines and GUIs?
Command lines are less resource-heavy than GUIs
GUIs are optimized for specific input methods
How can device drivers help fix bugs?
Developers and device manufacturers can release updates to device drivers in order to improve their performance and fix bugs
What can the Operating System do?
Provide a user interface
Provide file management and disk management
Manage system security and user accounts
How does the OS allow multitasking?
By managing resources
What are the steps so the OS can manage resources?
When an application is opened the OS moves the necessary parts of the application to memory
What are the advantages of Open source software?
Usually free
Encourges collaboration
The software can be adapted by users to fit their needs
What are the disadvantages of Open source software?
Could be buggy
Unpatched security holes
Small projects may not get regular updates
What are the advantages of Proprietary software?
Comes with warranties, documentation and customer support
Should be well-tested and reliable
Usually cheaper for companies than developing their own custom-built software
Why do hard drives become fragmented?
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
What are the effects of a fragmented hard drive?
Read/write time is slower has read/write head has to move back and forth across the disk
How does defragmentation work?
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
What is the purpose of device drivers?
It translates the operating system instructions to print the document into a series of instructions which a specific piece of hardware will understand
What are the steps of memory mangement?
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
Why should solid states not be fragmented?
As it is unnecessary as they have no moving parts
Also reduces their lifespan
