Module 1: History of Computer and Operating Systems and Setting up a Virtual Machine on Your Home Computer

Question 1

multiprogramming

Answer 1

run multiple applications at the same time, protecting them from one another and sharing the CPU between them

Question 2

hierarchical file system

Answer 2

store data on disk persistently organized in a tree structure

Question 3

plug-and-play devices

Answer 3

software that allows external devices to interact with applications

Question 4

virtual memory

Answer 4

store multiple applications in memory at the same time

Question 5

graphical user interface

Answer 5

allows users to develop, run, and interact with new applications. good user interface allows operating systems to evolve from office machines into machines usable by home users.

Question 6

ENIAC

Answer 6

the electronic numerical integrator and computer / first general-purpose electronic computer. ENIAC was developed at Penn

Question 7

punch cards

Answer 7

pieces of stiff papers with holes in them, where the presence and absence of holes is used to encode digital information about data or programs

Question 8

resident monitor

Answer 8

a piece of software that is a precursor to modern operating systems. this software runs in memory and in the punch card era, and was used to process one punch card at a time.

Question 9

operating system (os)

Answer 9

a piece of software that is layered between applications and hardware, allowing multiple applications to share the same physical machine resources and gain access to external devices

Question 10

time-sharing

Answer 10

the ability to share one physical compute resource among multiple applications

Question 11

multics

Answer 11

a time-sharing os developed by MIT, GE, and Bell Labs for mainframes in the 60s

Question 12

compatible time sharing system (CTSS)

Answer 12

an os developed by MIT that shares similar time-sharing features as multics

Question 13

linux

Answer 13

an open-source os commonly used on both home and server machines. linux is closely modeled after its predecessor Unix

Question 14

unix

Answer 14

os developed by Bell Labs that has many of the features used in modern os’s such as time-sharing, a Shell, and a hierarchical file system

Question 15

MS-DOS

Answer 15

an early os developed for end-user computers by microsoft. MS-DOS introduced the command prompt interfaces seen in many subsequent versions of Windows

Question 16

Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD)

Answer 16

a unix distribution developed by UC Berkeley; well-known for its pioneering implementation of the TCP/IP protocol used over the internet today

Question 17

ubuntu

Answer 17

a popular distribution of linux that is considered easy to install and easily usable by the non-expert

Question 18

virtualization

Answer 18

a method for dividing up physical compute resources into logical separate units usable by different users. the most common example is running multiple os’s that share one physical machine.

Question 19

embedded os

Answer 19

an os for small devices like sensor networks, or specialized hardware used in airplanes, home appliances, and other mobile devices

Question 20

vagrant

Answer 20

a software that automates the process of installation of virtual machines

Question 21

virtual machine

Answer 21

a piece of software that emulates a physical machine, but is actually an application running on an existing os

Question 22

host os

Answer 22

the os that runs on actual hardware

Question 23

guest os

Answer 23

the operating system that runs in the virtual machine

Question 24

virtualbox

Answer 24

an open-source software that enables us to run virtual machines

Question 25

code repository

Answer 25

a service that stores multiple versions of code, either in the cloud or locally on a server machine

Question 26

version control

Answer 26

the ability to manage and change across multiple versions of digital content, typically software

Question 27

git

Answer 27

an open-source popular version control software

Question 28

push

Answer 28

pushing locally committed software changes into a code repo

Question 29

merge

Answer 29

pulling in changes from a code repository and combining the changes with local changes, before pushing the combined version back to the server. merge can sometimes be done automatically if there are no conflicting changes.