Summary

Thus, we have an introduction to the OS. Today’s operating systems make systems relatively easy to use, and virtually all operating systems you use today have been influenced by the developments we will discuss throughout the course.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, there are a number of parts of the OS we won’t cover in the course. For example, there is a lot of networking code in the operating system; we leave it to you to take the networking course to learn more about that. Similarly, graphics devices are particularly important; take the graphics course to expand your knowledge in that direction. Finally, some operating system resources talk a great deal about security; we will do so in the sense that the OS must provide protection between running programs and give users the ability to protect their files, but we won’t delve into deeper security issues that one might find in a security course.

However, there are many important topics that we will cover, including the basics of virtualization of the CPU and memory, concurrency, and persistence via devices and file systems. Don’t worry! While there is a lot of ground to cover, most of it is quite cool, and at the end of the road, you’ll have a new appreciation for how computer systems really work. Now get to work!