Operating Systems Core Concepts for Developers
Operating Systems Core Concepts for Developers Computers run many tasks at once, and the operating system (OS) coordinates them. For developers, knowing how the OS handles processes, memory, files, and input/output helps write faster, safer, and more portable code. This guide covers the essentials in plain terms, with practical ideas you can apply today. Processes and threads A process is an isolated program in memory. It has its own space for code and data. A thread is a lightweight path of execution inside a process. Threads share the process resources, which makes communication easier but requires care to avoid conflicts. The OS switches between tasks (context switching) to give fair CPU time. This switching adds overhead, so good design minimizes unnecessary context changes. Memory management and virtual memory ...