The main purposes of an operating system are to provide a user interface (typically graphical), manage computer hardware and software interactions, and maximize hardware performance. Without an operating system, software would need to be individually programmed for specific hardware configurations. Operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux provide standard interfaces that software can be written to, while drivers allow hardware to communicate with the operating system. Common operating systems provide different user experiences and capabilities.

1. P2: EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
Thethreemainfamiliesof operating systemsare: Windows,OSX(Mac OS),and
Linux.
CLI differs from GUI, CLI stands for command lineinterface.An example of this is usingthe command prompt
in Windows.CLI uses different sets of commands to access functions of the computer, whereas GUI (Graphical
User Interface), is designed to be user friendly.The GUI is the desktop OS. It is the interactivesystem that you
use to access programs with a graphical output.
An Operatingsystem is what provides a user interface, a GUI. It acts as a way to communicate with the
computer hardware. An OperatingSystem manages the computer hardwareand software; it acts as a medium
for the software to interact with the hardware.
Without an OS, each piece of software would need to be individually programmed for a specific configuration
of hardware, justto interactwith it. Instead the software is programmed to the OS, and the OS is programmed
to an all manner of hardware(resources: CPU, GPU, HDD, ram, etc.)
Linux OS or the Linux kernel is an open sourcepiece of software, itallows peopleto create their own versions
of the Linux operatingsystem, and some common examples are: Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and Linpus.
The Linux OS is based similarly to UNIX, which is common with universities,itwas originally a CLI based OS, but
was later given a GUI OS version.
Because of Linux’s diversity,different OS’s based off of the Linux code can look very different. UsingMint and
Ubuntu as examples,they showsimilarities compared to modern OS’s,but they do look aesthetically different.
Command lineinterfaceis different from the GUI as the CLI is basic and provides very limited forms of user
interaction.The GUI is better in this respect as itallows a greater amount of tasks to be done, as there is the
ability for user interaction.
The purpose of an operating system is to provide a link between software and hardware, this is done througfh
the use of a GUI, and the use of ‘drivers’.‘Drivers’allowsdpecific hardwareto be calibrated to the OS, this
makes it run faster and removes glitches.Drivers arepieces of software which aredownloaded to the
computer. So the use of an OS is to maximisethe potential of the hardwareinsidethe computer system, whilst
providingan acceptableuser interface, as this is whatallows theuse of software likegames, microsoftoffice,
etc.
When lookingatOSX (apple),and Windows (Microsoft),we can see the difference in storage, OSX uses FAT32
whereas Windows uses NTFS, NTFS supports larger filesizes (FAT32 is limited to 2TB drives) and is theoretically
faster, yet the way in which OSX saves files means there is no need for windows defrag, this is needed in
windows yet itis done automatically.

2. P2: EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE OF OPERATING SYSTEMS