Pos/355 Unix/Mac/Windows

UNIX/Linux versus Mac versus Windows

POS/355

UNIX/Linux versus Mac versus Windows

Introduction

In today’s fast paced computer driven home and work environments users and businesses are given options when it selecting an operating system to run on their computers. The three most popular options are: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX/Linux. Each of these operating systems provides the users and their computers many diverse options that can meet their needs. Deciding which operating system to use can prove to be a difficult choice for many users or businesses. Evaluating their system needs is not the only factor that should be considered; each operating system’s unique design, interface and capabilities make each a viable choice to be considered. The following which discussion, compare, and contrast each of the above operating system’s unique setup and configuration for: memory management, process management, file management, and security.

Memory Management

An important system resource that all computer systems use is memory. Before a program can run it must be loaded into memory. While a program is running, additional memory is allocated to manipulate and store program-level data. “Memory management involves treating main memory as a resource to be allocated to and shared among a number of active processes” (Stallings, 2012, p. 330). Memory management is used to optimize the overall system performance. “Memory management is the task of subdivision carried out dynamically by the operating system (OS)” (Stallings, 2012, p. 306). Effective memory management is necessary to handle tasks when multiple programs are being used simultaneously.

A component responsible for managing memory is the virtual memory manager (VMM). In a modern operating system like Windows, system process and applications always reference memory using virtual memory addresses. The hardware automatically translates the virtual memory addresses to real (RAM) addresses. Virtual...