What is an operating system?

An operating system is a collection of software programs which control the allocation and usage of various hardware resources in the system. It is the first program to be loaded in the computer and it runs in the memory till the system is shut down.

Some of the popular Operating Systems are DOS, Windows, Ubuntu, Solaris etc.

What are its main functions?

The main functions of an OS are:

a. Process Management

b. Memory Management

c. Input/ Output Management

d. Storage/ File system management