Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS
What is an operating system and learn how knowing the Apple Co. and Microsoft Co. will help in understanding Mac OS and Windows.
Subject: Basic Computers
Lecture Capture Software: Camtasia 8
Presentation: PowerPoint 2007
Presentation: PowerPoint 2007
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You probably have heard of companies such Apple, Microsoft, and maybe Linux too. You wonder what they are and maybe you wonder how you can use them to understand what an Operating System is and what it does.
Apple Inc., according to Wikipedia is “is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, online services, and personal computers.” The first Apple made personal computer was introduced in January 1984. The personal computer is called the “Macintosh” or simply called “Mac” and this is the symbol for it. So when you see desktops, laptops, tablets or even cellular phones with this logo, that means, the device is made by the Apple Company.
Well, ok, the Mac computer is built, with hardware, with keyboard and mouse but you, as a user, has to be able to communicate to it. This is where the operating system comes in. According to this book “an operating system or sometimes called OS is a type of software that acts as the master controller for all activities that takes place within a computer system.” Let’s talk about this for a minute.
What does that mean? It means, it provides the “environment” for Word document, surfing the net, using Excel, viewing photos, and everything else you do in the computer. The operating system also communicates with everything else attached to it such printer, scanner, speaker, keyboard, and mouse. So here’s a list of all the tasks that the operating system does for your computer.
• Provides an environment for running software, and controlling peripheral devices
• Interacts with application software, device drivers, and hardware to manage computer’s resources such as the processor, RAM, storage devices, and peripheral devices
Ok, now that you understand what an operating system is, the Mac computers made by the Apple Co. comes in with an operating system also made by them, it is called Mac OS X or Mac OS ten Yosemite. So, in other words, when you buy an Apple computer, called Mac it usually comes in with an Apple’s operating system, and the latest OS as of this presentation is called OS X Yosemite. The versions of operating system changes after a few years of release and that’s just a fact. Here’s a quick list of all the OS X version so far.
So, now let’s talk about the other big company called Microsoft. According to Wikipedia, “is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. “ Sounds like a direct competitor to Apple, right? Yes, they are. Microsoft’s operating system is actually installed on more than 80% of the world’s personal computers. That’s 80% in the world! So, what is Microsoft’s operating system? Yes, the popular one, called “Windows” and this is the familiar logo you see everywhere. So, if you buy a computer with Microsoft’s operating system, the latest Microsoft OS as of this presentation is called Windows 8 and now on its version 1, so simply 8.1. Just like Apple’s operating system that changes every few years, Microsoft’s Windows also releases new Operating system every few years. Prior to Windows 8.1, is Windows 7 and prior Windows 7 is Windows Vista and so forth. Here’s a history of all the operating system by Microsoft so far.
So now that you know what an operating system is and what Mac and Windows are, you are ready to move on to the next video about operating systems on personal computers, on servers and handheld devices.