Tutorial

What is an Operating System?

Published on January 20, 2021
Default avatar

By Lyn Muldrow

Senior Developer Educator

What is an Operating System?

An operating system is system software that handles computer memory, software and hardware resources, and processes, while providing common services and programming interfaces for computer programs. Examples of popular operating systems include WindowsOS, MacOS, and Linux.

Aside from firmware, all computer programs require an operating system to function, and they are typically preloaded on new computers. Each operating system has a different user interface, or UI, that allows users to interact with their computer.

To learn more, here’s some operating system specific resources, including a comprehensive list of resources for Windows, FreeBSD, and Linux.

Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.

Learn more about us


About the authors
Default avatar

Senior Developer Educator

Software engineer, writer, and speaker who loves solving problems and educating the next generation.

Still looking for an answer?

Ask a questionSearch for more help

Was this helpful?
 

Try DigitalOcean for free

Click below to sign up and get $200 of credit to try our products over 60 days!

Sign up

Join the Tech Talk
Success! Thank you! Please check your email for further details.

Please complete your information!

Get our biweekly newsletter

Sign up for Infrastructure as a Newsletter.

Hollie's Hub for Good

Working on improving health and education, reducing inequality, and spurring economic growth? We'd like to help.

Become a contributor

Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.

Welcome to the developer cloud

DigitalOcean makes it simple to launch in the cloud and scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.

Learn more
DigitalOcean Cloud Control Panel