I want to start today a series of questions and answers about different things in computing and in the information technology area. I will start something like a trivia game, but I won’t provide many options for an answer, but I will just say the correct answer. So, let’s get started with the question number one.
1. What is an operating system?
The operating system is a software, created or not by the same manufacturer who created the hardware, which is designed to work with the other software installed on the computer, in order to make the hardware equipments to provide the most effective computer performance. If a computer cannot give more performance, this is due to the fact that the software and the hardware might be incompatible.
2. How many types of operating systems there are?
There are more types of operating systems out there, but only three of them have managed to impose themselves on the computer markets. Here I am not talking about Android or other systems created for portable devices, like smartphones. The only portable machines that can have an operating system, of those presented here, are the laptops. So, those three are: Windows from Microsoft, iOS from Apple and Linux, with all its distributions. Some of the most common distributions of Linux are Ubuntu and Debian.
3. What is the multiprocessing?
It is the ability of a computer to handle more processors at once. Not to be confused with the ability of a computer or of an operating system to handle more tasks at once, which is the multitasking. Not only that the computer that has this ability supports more processors running inside it, but it also uses them to provide better performance.
4. What is the multithreading?
This is the ability of a computer to allow different parts of a computer software to run concurrently.
5. What is a computer daemon?
As the name suggests, it is a computer program that is not controlled by the user. Have you heard someone asking: “How to stop the daemon, because it is not good?” or other stuff like this? I haven’t. The daemons’ names usually end in “d”. The daemons are controlled by the computer processes. Attention, just because it has this name, you should not confuse it with a virus or other type of malware program, because it is not. The parent of a daemon is usually the initial process that starts up and controls the daemon. Running in background, they do not influence the activities of the user on the computer.
6. What is the virtual memory?
The virtual memory is not the main memory of a computer, but the secondary one, that allows the user to make use of it, so that to maintain the amount of free main memory at a high level. When you perform more operations on your computer, for example receive an e-mail, writing a news and listening to music, at a certain point, if your computer is too outdated, you might receive a message that says: “You cannot load more on this computer, because the RAM memory is too low”. In other words, your computer is forbidding you to do certain things, simply because the memory is not enough. You should upgrade the memory or get another computer, that uses the virtual memory as well. The use of this kind of memory translates by finding free spaces in the RAM memory that can be used for additional operations on your computer. The free space in the memory which is not used at a certain time, is used by the virtual memory to copy some files on your hard disk, in order to make all the operations to run smoothly, without affecting the user. So, the user will not even know, if the virtual memory has worked at a certain point of the day or it did not. This is done automatically. The user will not know when this is happening. He will have the impression that the amount of memory stored on his computer is enough, but in time, even the virtual memories should be upgrated.
7. What is the Graphical Unit Interface?
Is the software that contains the graphics on the computer and is used by the user to navigate through the operating system. It uses icons, so that the user to be able to see on what he or she is clicking.
8. What is the troubleshooting of a computer?
The computer, when broken, has to be repaired at a repair center. The technician there will thus troubleshoot the computer, to see what is the cause of its problems. The causes may reveal a software issue or a hardware one. Information about how to troubleshoot a computer can be found on the manufacturer’s site. Still, it is not recommended to try to perform a troubleshooting operation on your computer by yourself, if the computer is under the warranty period, because you rik of losing the warranty. If the computer is not under that period any longer, you can do this by yourself, but only if you are a technician or you are authorized by the manufacturer to perform this kind of operations on your computer. In this situation, you should work at the company who produced the computer, as an IT specialist. Because if you work as an accountant, you cannot troubleshoot the computer. Whatever the situation, it is recommended to take the computer to a real doctor to see.
