What's an Operating System?

Windows, Mac and Linux. These three are the most commonly used operating systems in the world, almost every personal computer using at least one of these, maybe more. The operating system can make or break the user's experience, thus making it one of the most important parts of your computer.

The operating system (or "OS" for short) of your computer is the system of programs that allows you to operate your computer. (See what I did there?) Without it you wouldn't be able to communicate with your computer, and it couldn't communicate with you; Your mouse, keyboard and monitor wouldn't work for starters. In a way, it's the translator between the two of you. The OS controls everything from how you empty the "trash" to how you connect to the internet, what kind of programs you can run and even your privacy and security.

For example, many people have heard that Macs "can't get viruses". While that's not entirely true, Macs and other Unix-based OS'es (like Linux) are innately more secure, making it more difficult for viruses, trojans, and other bad programs to get into your system. One of the reasons they're more secure is because they "speak" a different language than Windows, whom most of the viruses are written for. Imagine, if you will, that Windows speaks Russian, Macs speak Spanish, and Linux speaks French. If you gave a book written in Russian to Windows, it'd understand it. If you gave it to the Mac or Linux though, they wouldn't.

(Side note: You might have noticed in my analogy that I gave the Mac and Linux languages that are similar (romance languages); This is because both of these computers are similar when you get down to their underpinnings, but have diverged enough to make them distinct.) That's why a computer game you buy at the store might work on your Windows computer, but not your Mac or vice versa. The three systems speak different languages that allow them to talk to you, and you to it, but maybe not so much with each other.

Practical Tip of the Day:
While most types of computer files are "universal", meaning they can be used on almost any kind of computer, some are "proprietary" meaning they can only work on one. An example of this is the Windows .EXE file. This is a file that contains a program, but if you put it on a Mac or Linux computer, it wouldn't do anything. If you receive a file that you don't recognize, a simple Google search for the suffix (the characters that come after the period in the name) will usually tell you what kind of file it is. As usual, I NEVER recommend opening a file you received from unknown sources as it can contain a malicious program.