A while back I covered, in a series of articles,  the vast majority of the computer components, as far as hardware (the physical components of a computer) is concerned. So now, to understand Operating  System, let’s talk about software.

Computer software is, simply put, a program. And what is a program? A sequence of commands for the computer to execute (carry out), normally contained in a file. That’s all it is. So whether it’s a word processing program, a video player, or an operating system, it all falls under the category of software.

Now, an operating system is a special kind of software, because it acts as the middleman between the hardware and all the other software. You could say it goes

Hardware –> Operating System –> All other software –> User

When you install, run, uninstall a program, all these tasks are possible thanks to the operating system. So you can see why the operating system can be called a kind of platform.

The above is the most basic explanation for what an operating system is. I have tried to keep it as simple as possible, and hopefully I’ve succeeded. Most importantly, I hope I didn’t put anybody to sleep! 🙂