Nerd Word: OS

I like the idea of segments, and so I came up with Nerd Word. I'll throw out a word that a lot of people don't understand, but is dropped a lot when you hang out with nerds. 

Oh, and thanks for hanging out with us. 

The word of the day is "OS". It stands for operating system. I will now explain what an operating system is. Hang with me, it gets a little complex.

If you want to skip to the really basic stuff, skip to the bottom.

So when your computer is off, it's just a pile of circuits, circuit boards, disks, and other assorted hardware. Hardware is the physical part of the computer. 

Below is a picture of hardware.

If you smash your computer with a hammer, you break the hardware. 

When you turn the computer on, an operating system starts. The operating system is a complex program that tells the hardware how to react to different programs. 

Below is a picture of an operating system.

A virus breaks the operating system. 

Because the operating system is not part of the hardware, this means you can delete Windows off your computer, and install Linux, OSX, and other operating systems, on the same computer. The hardware does not determine the operating systems necessarily. 

It's the big mother program that tells all the other little programs how to act.

An example of how an operating system functions:

Tetris for Windows.

You start a program called Tetris. It sends a ton of code to the operating system.

The operating system reads the code it received from the program that looks like this:

if(KeyDown(UP))

{

    RotatePiece(CLOCKWISE);

}

and turns it into this:

1010100101011101010100101001010100110101010101011010110...

(sidenote: the code above is called binary code. It's a code that tells little switches what to do. The one's and zero's just mean on or off. Your computer is made of millions of tiny switches and circuits.)

And these numbers tell the hardware to listen to the keyboard and mouse, and show little colored shapes on the screen. 

Still with me?

So because each operating system speaks a different language, programs are written differently for different operating systems. That's why you can't install a Windows program on a Mac computer. Or vice versa.

What are some examples of operating systems?

Windows (We all know this one.)

OSX (The operating system on Macs, sometimes called Mac OS.)

Linux (Don't worry, this one's for nerds.)

Android (On a lot of cellular phones.)

iOS (The operating system for iPhone, iPad, and iTouch)

Sample sentences:

"Oh man, I liked Windows machines, but I love Mac OS."

Or,

"Seriously, I just need to update my machine's OS."  

Or,

"I prefer Android OS."

So now you know. 

Real Simple Stuff

OS just stands for operating system. 

Examples of an operating system are Windows, OSX, Linux, Android, and iOS.

It just tells the computer how to react to games, browsers, and other programs you run on it. 

You can't install programs for Windows on your Mac, because each operating system has a different language it speaks.

That my friends, is what OS means.