Operating systems are actively developing and relevant. Trends in the development of personal computers

Trends in the development of personal computers

At the present stage of development of operating systems, security tools have come to the fore. This is due to the increased value of information processed by computers, as well as the increased level of threats that exist when data is transmitted over networks, especially public ones such as the Internet. Many operating systems today have advanced information security tools based on data encryption, authentication and authorization.

Modern operating systems are inherent in multiplatform, that is, the ability to work on completely different types of computers. Many operating systems have special editions to support cluster architectures for high performance and fault tolerance. The exception so far is the NetWare operating system, all versions of which are developed for the Intel platform, and the implementation of NetWare functions as a wrapper for other operating systems, such as NetWare for AIX, was not successful.

In recent years, the long-term trend of increasing the convenience of human work with a computer has been further developed. The efficiency of human work becomes the main factor determining the efficiency of the computing system as a whole. Human efforts should not be spent on setting the parameters of the computing process, as happened in the OS of previous generations. For example, in mainframe batch processing systems, each user had to use a job control language to define a large number of parameters related to the organization of computing processes in a computer. For example, for the OS/360 system, the JCL job control language provided for the user to define more than 40 parameters, among which were the priority of the job, the requirements for the main memory, the time limit for the job, the list of input-output devices used and their modes of operation.

The modern operating system takes on the task of choosing the parameters of the operating environment, using various adaptive algorithms for this purpose. For example, timeouts in communication protocols are often defined based on network conditions. The distribution of RAM between processes is carried out automatically using virtual memory mechanisms, depending on the activity of these processes and information about the frequency of their use of a particular page. Instantaneous process priorities are determined dynamically based on historical history, including, for example, how long a process has been in the queue, the percentage of timeslice used, I/O intensity, and so on. Even during installation, most operating systems offer a default selection mode that ensures if not optimal, but always acceptable quality of the systems.



The convenience of interactive work with a computer is constantly increasing by including advanced graphical interfaces in the operating system that use sound and video images along with graphics. This is especially important for turning a computer into a terminal of a new public network, since for a mass user, the terminal should be almost as clear and convenient as a telephone set. The user interface of the operating system is becoming more and more intelligent, directing human actions in typical situations and making routine decisions for him.

The level of ease of use that isolated computer operating systems provide to users, administrators, and application developers today is only a tempting prospect for network operating systems. While network users and administrators spend considerable time trying to figure out where a given resource is, network application developers put a lot of effort into locating data and software modules on a network. Operating systems of the future must provide a high level of transparency of network resources, taking on the task of organizing distributed computing, turning the network into a virtual computer. This is exactly what Sun's specialists put into the laconic slogan "The network is a computer", but to turn the slogan into reality, developers of operating systems still have a long way to go.

Taking into account the above considerations, the following scenario seems to be the most probable:

China will be the first to try to get rid of the dominance of Windows ™ at the state level - it will receive the most benefits from this and it has the most opportunities for this. China will try to introduce either a localized Linux distribution, or try to develop a proprietary OS based on FreeBSD (or another free OS with a BSD-like license) - Linux is more likely, as it has been developing more actively lately.

This will happen gradually over 3-5 years. All public authorities and firms closely associated with the state will be transferred to the national computer (national processor + national Linux distribution) without fail. In parallel, a large number of localized versions of application programs will be formed, and national Linux will be used for teaching in educational institutions.

Based on the experience of using many modern operating systems, the following main trends in their development can be distinguished.

Graphic shells. Any modern operating system has a graphical user interface, and (for obvious reasons of intense competition between development firms) graphical shells for all operating systems are approximately the same in terms of capabilities. Sometimes it is difficult for the user to find out which OS he is working in, although for end users (non-programmers), apparently, such unification is convenient.

Support for new network technologies and Web technologies. Networks and the Internet are actively developing. New standards and protocols are emerging - IPv6, HTML 5 (for cloud computing), etc. Modern operating systems are evolving towards supporting all new network technologies.

Increased attention to security and protection mechanisms. Largely due to the Trustworthy Computing initiative launched by Microsoft in 2002, and also in view of the ever-increasing cybercrime, all modern operating systems pay increased attention to security: when browsing web pages, browsers check them for the absence of phishing (a type of Internet fraud); downloads and installations of programs from the network are performed only with the explicit consent of the user, etc.

Support for multithreading and multi-core processors. Due to the widespread use of multi-core processors, all modern operating systems have software libraries that support this hardware capability. It is thanks to the multi-core architecture that parallel execution of threads (threads) becomes really possible.

Support for distributed and parallel computing. Modern operating systems incorporate high-level libraries that allow you to develop parallel algorithms for solving problems - for example, those that support the OpenMP and MPI parallelism standards.

Virtualization of resources and equipment. Modern operating systems incorporate virtualization tools that allow you to run applications for other platforms in isolated virtual machines in which other operating systems can be installed.

The development of file systems in order to protect information and significantly increase the size of files (for multimedia). Today's multimedia processing requirements mean that older file systems (such as FAT) are not sufficient for storing multimedia files. For example, the maximum file size in the FAT system - 4 gigabytes - can easily be exceeded when transferring a 10-15 minute digital video tape to a computer. Therefore, new file systems are being developed that can store very large files, such as the ZFS system on the Solaris OS. Another requirement is to ensure the confidentiality of information, which leads to the need to implement encryption capabilities in file systems (which is implemented, for example, in the ZFS file system) .

Cloud computing support is a completely new trend in OS development.

Thus, we can conclude that the following OS development prospects are currently observed:

The trend towards OS integration (not only at the level of graphical shells, but also at the level of a common kernel); development of OS families based on common code modules;

A significant increase in the reliability, security and fault tolerance of the OS; OS development on managed code or its analogues.

Further trend towards open source OS projects; this is understandable, since software development firms need new ideas, which is a great opportunity for young programmers to shine.

Virtualization development: It is necessary to provide the ability to run or emulate any application in the environment of any modern OS.

Further convergence in capabilities between desktop OS and mobile OS.

Further integration of OS and networks.

OS porting to cloud computing environments.

Let's look at this problematic issue from the other side: Android is strictly controlled by Google, this is a known fact. That is, no one, except for the Internet giant, is allowed to change or add anything. As a result, the openness of the project is a marketing ploy, but quite beautiful.

If necessary, you can act like the Chinese - they develop their own shells based on Android, editing interfaces and embedding new functions. A suitable example would be Flyme OS or MIUI. Developers create the latest editions of their own operating systems based on the new Android from Google. That is, they do not come up with anything new.

What will happen to Apple and its devices? Today it is difficult to imagine: there was a time when they were an example for everyone. When Steve Jobs passed away, strictly adjusted strategic schemes disappeared. Therefore, now the "apple" company may lose its most devoted fans and finally lose the fight for first place in the smartphone market.

Thanks to the marketing policy, and not the magical properties of the former leader, Apple manages to sell tablets and smartphones. But no one talks about innovativeness, so it is not clear what will happen in the end.

Recent fluctuations in stocks and percentage jumps in value only prove once again that changes like increasing the diagonal of the screen, using a large number of cores, and RAM are ineffective. For example, the iPad from the 4th generation cannot be called bad, but still this device appeared due to a small demand for iPad Mini tablet computers. This is a pointless move!

Windows Phone was created at the right time: processors with multiple cores are installed in mobile devices, 512 MB of “RAM” is the minimum available. This suggests that the hardware base has been worked out for a long time. The developers showed a new interface that can be mastered without any problems. It works smoothly and lively, and it looks unusual.


The problem with adopting WP 8 isn't with Nokia devices or the new operating system tiles. On Windows Phone, until recently, there was no list of functions that smartphone owners are used to working with. And the developers are in no hurry to switch to a new “axis”, giving preference to stable sales of Android, comparing them with unpredictable devices on Windows Phone.

Today, the user audience of Windows Phone is gradually increasing. Of course, this process is very slow, but sure. This platform was able to overtake BlackBerry OS due to the halving of the latter's performance. Now it remains only to wait for Microsoft to take action to popularize its own mobile OS.

What will happen to newcomers?

In 2014, perhaps earlier, Android 5 will appear. Apple should announce the iPhone 6, and Samsung will delight with the next Galaxy S model.

With other mobile operating systems, everything seems to be clear. The question of interest is: “Does anyone even need to spend money on them today in order to get a sales failure in the future?”. Maybe it's better to give preference to a proven operating system from Google? Using its basis, you can imagine your own mobile device, the development and promotion of which will require a minimum of money.

The Sailfish operating system is supposedly going to fail because no one needs it. An interesting feature is the successful implementation of the gestures feature in Ubuntu Phone. But something else, with the exception of interchangeable multi-colored panels for the only smartphone model on the website, when you place an order, cannot be boasted yet.


Sailfish Mobile OS

The Tizen system, which will be a surprise to many, will bypass fantastic prospects: we can recall the 5 billion Samsung received from the Android platform. This case is unlikely to happen again with Tizen. Developers will have to forget about such a sum and start taking risks with a new operating system. This applies to all projects. The easiest way is to replace bada and eventually introduce the OS into other hardware.


Mobile OS Tizen

Firefox OS can be considered interesting because of the cost, colorful design, and considering the requirements of the budget segment. However, in this case, as a standard, you will have to compete with lower quality, but better in power, Android devices from developers from the Middle Kingdom. Still, it will be possible to get a certain share in the market. However, there is no need to talk about anything serious, given the current situation.


So, a little chaotically, the near future of mobile operating systems is seen. What do you think?

The trend towards OS integration (not only at the level of graphic

shells, but also at the level of the common core); family development

OS based on common code modules

Significant improvement in reliability, safety and

OS fault tolerance; OS development on managed code

or its analogues

Continued trend towards open source OS projects

(new ideas needed - great opportunity for

young programmers)

Development of virtualization: It is necessary to provide

the ability to execute or emulate any

application in the environment of any modern OS

Further convergence in OS capabilities for

desktop and mobile OS

Further integration of OS and networks

· Migration of OS and basic tools to environments for

cloud computing

· OS remain actively developing direction,

one of the most interesting in the field of systemic

programming


End of work -

This topic belongs to:

The concept of an operating system. Appointment. Main characteristics and classification

The concept of the operating system purpose of the main characteristics and classification.. architecture ms dos the core of the system loading the system and additional drivers.. model of process states in unix svr..

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All topics in this section:

The evolution of operating systems. Ways of development of modern OS
First period (1945 -1955) The first tube computers. At that time, the same group of people were involved in design, operation, and programming.

Process management concept
In a multitasking (multiprocess) system, a process can be in one of three main states: EXECUTION - the active state of the process, during which the process has all

The concept of flow. Threads at the user level and at the kernel level. Combined approaches
Each process has an address space and a single stream of executable instructions. In multiuser systems, each time you access the same service, you have to create but

Operating system layer model
OSI model 1. physical layer 2. link layer 3. network layer 4. transport layer 5. session layer 6. presentation layer

Monolithic core
The monolithic kernel provides a rich set of hardware abstractions. All parts of a monolithic kernel operate in the same address space. This is such an operating system scheme in which all components

microkernel
The microkernel provides only elementary process control functions and a minimal set of abstractions for working with the hardware. Most of the work is carried out with the help of special

The concept of a process. Creation and completion. 3-state model
Reasons for creating processes Reasons for terminating processes

The concept of flow. Thread states
A thread is a unit of execution. This is the entity within the process to be scheduled. This is a separate command counter. A thread represents one of possibly many subtasks of a process. Flow can nah

The concept of flow. Characteristics of streams. Multithreading as a property of the operating system
A thread is a unit of execution. This is the entity within the process to be scheduled. This is a separate command counter. A thread represents one of possibly many subtasks of a process. Multithreading

Process concept
A process is a system of action that implements a specific function in a computing system. This is the logical unit of work for the OS. The OS performs tasks related to processes, such as control, pl

Types of addresses and address spaces
Different names are used to identify variables and commands at different stages of the program life cycle: Symbolic names are assigned by the user when writing a program for an algorithm

Logical organization
In fact, always the main memory in a computer system is organized as a linear (one-dimensional) address space, consisting of a sequence of bytes or words. WTO is organized similarly

Features of the "client-server" architecture for the OS (systems with a microkernel) and for the environment
To a certain extent, it can be called a return to the "host-computer + terminals" model, since the core of such a system is a database server, which is an application that implements

The concept of virtual memory as a function of operating systems. Organization and principles of work
Virtual memory is a set of software and hardware tools that allow users to write programs that are larger than the available RAM; for this virtual memory

Input Output
The basic idea of ​​organizing I/O software is to divide it into several levels, with the lower levels providing shielding of hardware features from the upper ones, and t

Memory protection
Memory protection is a way to manage access rights to individual regions of memory. Used by most multitasking operating systems. The main purpose of memory protection is

System integration and prospects for the development of operating systems

Having successfully studied the material, you will know:

    definitions of the concepts "system integration", "economic information system", "information technologies";

    principles of classification and basic functional, classification features of information technologies;

    functional features of XML;

    factors that have a fundamental impact on the development of operating systems;

    prospects for the development of operating systems of the Windows family.

After studying this topic, you will be able to:

    conduct a comparative analysis of the definitions of the concept of "system integration";

    classify information technologies according to functional features;

    navigate the requirements for future operating systems.

After studying the material, you you will have the skills:

    identifying the main features of corporate operating systems;

    selection of computer equipment based on the requirements of promising operating systems.

Basic concepts for topic 13

System integration

Applied software product

Economic Information System

Information technology

Basic information technology

Subject Information Technology

Functional information technology

Enabling information technology

Hardware and software system

The concept of system integration

Today, the issues of system integration of technologies, development and use of common standards in the field of software come to the fore. This is especially true for software products designed to automate the business processes of enterprises. The most important condition for the effective management of any business is the constant and controlled availability of complete, reliable and conveniently presented information, on the basis of which operational and strategic management decisions are made, communication with investors, partners and customers is carried out.

To provide information control systems enterprise exists economic information system(EIS) - a set of organizational, technical, software and information tools (information technologies) combined into a single system for collecting, processing and issuing the necessary information.

Under information technology one should understand the system of methods and ways of collecting, accumulating, storing, searching, processing, analyzing, issuing data, information and knowledge based on the use of hardware and software in accordance with the requirements of users.

Hardware designed to organize the process of processing data (information, knowledge), as well as hardware designed to organize communication and transfer of data (information, knowledge), are called basic information technologies.

Under subject information technology refers to the sequence of technological stages for the transformation of primary information into the result, independent of the use of computer technology and information technology.

Providing information technologies- these are information processing technologies that can be used as tools in various subject areas for solving various problems.

Modification of providing information technologies, in which any of the subject technologies is implemented, is functional information technology.

As we have already noted, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the processes of system integration of information technologies, standards within the framework of IS. For example, when choosing a computer, the buyer often does not think about the compatibility of components and, based on their capabilities and needs, can freely choose a monitor from one manufacturer, a motherboard from another, a video card from a third, etc. The performance of the components is ensured by the fact that most manufacturers of computer components have agreed on common standards for their interaction. It is important to understand that such a significant progress in the development of computer technology is due to this standardization.

Now let's imagine a similar situation, but not with computer components, but with the use of software from various manufacturers. Suppose that the task is to automate the management processes at the enterprise and it is necessary to select the appropriate applied software products. After considering various options for software solutions for an automated system (products of several developers), buyers (representatives of the enterprise) decided that the module proposed by the first developer is most suitable for automating the work of the personnel department, and the production control module is better from the second developer, etc. However, at present, in the overwhelming majority of cases, enterprises that purchase information systems are forced to purchase and implement integrated software from one of the manufacturers entirely, since manufacturers have not agreed on universal standards for data exchange between applications.

System integration- is the development of integrated solutions for the automation of enterprise business processes. Its ultimate goal is to manage the organization as efficiently as possible.

It should be noted that the concept of "system integration" is widely used in Russia and has undergone a certain evolution. At first, this was the name of the integration of hardware and software, then - the combination of several systems obtained during automation in various areas ("patchwork automation") on a single integration platform, and, finally, a modern understanding of this term was formed. Today system integration is:

One of the possible ways of integrating software within the EIS is the introduction of common data transfer standards, such as XML.

Recently XML concept is often discussed among software developers in modern computer literature and in the press. Using XML, it is very convenient to describe complex data structures in the form of XML objects; in the case of EIS, the role of such objects is played by universal business objects. Business objects described in XML are also a convenient means of exchanging information between different applications.

XML (Extensible Markup Language - extensible markup language) is designed to describe other languages, ie. it's a metalanguage. XML allows data to be represented as a structured text document. The markup of the structure is specified in the form of so-called tags (XML language tags) that have the format<имя>.. . The tags contain data. The easiest way to get an idea of ​​this approach is to look at any HTML document (the internal representation of a web page), since HTML is an XML-based language implementation and describes a set of tags for rendering data by a web browser.

XML documents are text files containing data and tags that identify structures within the text.

XML allows developers to complicate the structure of data by converting it into a format that can be used by web applications, servers, middleware, and end users.

The use of XML allows solving a number of fundamentally new tasks in the field of building integrated systems.

The implementation of XML servers and interface servers can be done for various software platforms. The use of XML as an open standard for data exchange between applications makes it possible to effectively use individual modules from different manufacturers within one information system, thereby achieving their combination that is the most optimal both in terms of functionality and in terms of financial investments.

Prospects for the development of operating systems

Along with databases, operating systems are the most important component of IS. Recently, much attention has been paid to network operating systems that can be used in the IS of various enterprises (corporate OS). Their further development is one of the most important tasks in the foreseeable future. For a corporate operating system, it is very important to have centralized administration and management tools that allow you to store accounts of tens of thousands of users, computers, communication devices and software modules available in the corporate network in a single database. The enterprise operating system is distinguished by its ability to work well and reliably in large networks, which are typical for large enterprises with branches in different regions. Such networks are organically characterized by a high degree of software and hardware heterogeneity, so a corporate OS must interact with different types of software and work on different hardware platforms.

To date, one of the representatives of the leaders in the class of corporate operating systems can be considered Microsoft. One of the latest versions of the operating system from this corporation is Windows 7. Windows 7 was released on October 22, 2009 to replace Windows Vista. Windows 7 has the following new features:


In addition, Microsoft is releasing a new server operating system, Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, to create multiple independent workstations on a single PC. Windows MultiPoint Server hardware is available from HP.

The new solution involves the use of a conventional medium-power computer for full-fledged work of users with the entire range of modern software. Individual accounts allow each user to have their own favorites list in Internet Explorer, customize the appearance of the desktop, place their own icons on it, customize the Start menu, and so on. These settings can be saved so that you can continue working with them next time by sitting down at any other workstation that has access to the host computer.

HP MultiSeat Computing Solution with Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 software reduces information workflow costs by 50% compared to single PCs. Therefore, this solution may be especially in demand in educational institutions, libraries, museums and small businesses.

The MultiPoint Manager interface is shown in fig. 13.3
.

New versions are also appearing in the Linux family of operating systems. For example, Mandriva released the final version of the Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring operating system (Fig. 13.4
).

The new software platform is based on the Linux kernel 2.6.33.4 and contains the GNOME 2.30.1 and KDE 4.4.3 desktop environments. The OS includes the OpenOffice.org 3.2 office suite, XBMC media center, Deluge, Transmission and qBittorrent BitTorrent clients, Lives, Kdenlive, OpenShot video editors, Firefox, Chromium, Opera browsers and a number of other applications. A lot of different educational and scientific software products are presented in the distribution kit.

In this version of the operating system, the installer has been updated, the driver database has been expanded, and hardware support has been improved. A new toolkit for setting up network services and a significantly improved mechanism for organizing the work of guest accounts in the system have appeared.

Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring distribution available in four versions.

    Mandriva One is the simplest user version of Mandriva, which can be used in LiveCD mode (directly from optical media) or installed on a hard drive. There is also an option to install Mandriva One on a computer that does not have a DVD drive from a USB drive.

    Mandriva Free is a version of the distribution for both workstations and servers, which includes only free applications.

    Mandriva Powerpack is the workstation and small server version most commonly used by organizations. The Russian version of the distribution kit additionally includes a number of applications that are important for Russian users: [email protected] to launch Russian business applications under Microsoft Windows in emulation mode (such as 1C: Enterprise, Garant, Consultant Plus, FineReader, etc.) in the GNU / Linux environment, a free medical information system, a program for accounting for business transactions of an individual entrepreneur, software to account for Traffpro Internet traffic, etc.

    Edumandriva is a solution for educational institutions based on Mandriva, created by teachers for teachers, included in the official set of free software for schools of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

Since 2009, the mobile operating system market has been experiencing events that affect the state of the industry in 2010 and may also affect 2011. So, in 2009, Symbian OS 5th edition appeared, which supports touch control. See table 13.1 for sales projections of mobile operating systems to end users.

Google and its partners began to actively promote the Android OS. Industry representatives such as ASUS, HTC, Acer and Motorola, Sony Ericsson have announced support for this mobile Linux variant.

Table 13.1.
Forecast: sales of mobile operating systems to end users (thousand units)
(according to Gartner as of August 2010)

Mobile OS

Market share (%)

Market share (%)

blackberry

Market share (%)

Market share (%)

Windows phone

Market share (%)

Other OS

Market share (%)

Total

Main conclusions

    System integration is the development of complex solutions for automating the business processes of an enterprise. Its ultimate goal is to manage the organization as efficiently as possible.

    To provide an enterprise management information system, there is an economic information system (EIS) - a set of organizational, technical, software and information tools (information technologies) combined into a single system for collecting, processing and issuing the necessary information.

    Information technology should be understood as a system of methods and methods for collecting, accumulating, storing, searching, processing, analyzing, issuing data, information and knowledge based on the use of hardware and software, in accordance with the requirements of users.

    Information technologies (IT) are divided into basic, subject, providing and functional.

    One of the possible ways to integrate software within the IS is the introduction of common data transfer standards, such as XML (Extensible Markup Language - extensible markup language). The use of XML allows solving a number of fundamentally new tasks in the field of building integrated systems.

    The use of XML as an open standard for data exchange between applications makes it possible to effectively use individual modules from different manufacturers within one information system, thereby achieving their combination that is the most optimal both in terms of functionality and in terms of financial investments.

    Operating systems are an important component of IS, the development of corporate operating systems is one of the most important tasks. For a corporate OS, it is very important to have centralized administration and management tools, as well as data security tools. Due to the high heterogeneity of software and hardware of enterprise computer networks, a corporate OS must interact with different types of software and work on different hardware platforms.

    A promising operating system of the Windows family (Windows 7) should provide a higher degree of integration (XML Paper Specification) and reliability. The new graphical interface (Aero) makes the OS promising for building integrated systems for various purposes.

test questions

    What does the term "information technology" mean in general, and how can information technologies be classified?

    Why is there an economic information system (EIS)?

    What is meant by the term "system integration"?

    Name one of the possible ways of integration and describe it.

    What are the prospects for further development of operating systems?

a number of very interesting and common lines of development of the OS, which are not reflected in detail in the course. These are primarily operating systems of large companies:
  • IBM- in the 1960s - 1970s. gg. developed OS IBM 360/370; then - OS for personal computers OS / 2; at present, the most modern operating systems of this company are z/OS and z/VM;
  • Apple– since the early 1980s. develops the OS family macOS, featuring an improved graphical user interface (see section macOS);
  • Oracle/Sun– from the beginning of the 1980s. Sun develops OS Solaris, UNIX development (see section Solaris);
  • Hewlett Packard- develops its own dialect of UNIX - the HP / UX system (see section HP-UX);
  • Novell– one of the leading firms in the field of network technologies; develops a family of network operating systems: NetWare; currently - Open Enterprise Server(a network operating system that includes all the networking capabilities of NetWare and the capabilities of a common dialect of Linux - openSUSE).

This is not a complete list of commercial and research operating systems, including hundreds of titles.

Solaris is an operating system developed by Oracle / Sun

Current trends in OS development

Based on the experience of using many modern operating systems, the following main trends in their development can be distinguished.

Graphic shells. Any modern OS has a graphical user interface, and (for obvious reasons of intense competition between development firms) graphical shells for all operating systems are approximately the same in terms of capabilities. Sometimes it is difficult for the user to find out which OS he is working in, although for end users (non-programmers), apparently, such unification is convenient.

Support for new networking and Web technologies. Networks and the Internet are actively developing. New standards and protocols are emerging - IPv6, HTML 5 (for cloud computing), etc. Modern operating systems are evolving towards supporting all new network technologies.

Increased focus on security and protection mechanisms. Largely due to the Trustworthy Computing initiative launched by Microsoft in 2002 (it was discussed in detail in previous lectures), and also in view of the ever-increasing cybercrime, all modern operating systems pay increased attention to security: when browsing web pages, browsers check them for the absence of phishing ; downloads and installations of programs from the network are performed only with the explicit consent of the user, etc.

Support for multi-threading and multi-core processors. Due to the widespread use of multi-core processors, all modern operating systems have software libraries that support this hardware capability. It is thanks to the multi-core architecture that parallel execution of threads (threads) becomes really possible.

Support for distributed and parallel computing. Modern operating systems incorporate high-level libraries that allow you to develop parallel algorithms problem solving - for example, supporting the OpenMP and MPI concurrency standards.

Resource and hardware virtualization. Modern operating systems incorporate virtualization tools that allow you to run applications for other platforms in isolated virtual machines into which other operating systems can be installed.

Development of file systems in order to protect information and significantly increase the size of files (for multimedia). Today's multimedia processing requirements mean that older file systems (such as FAT) are not sufficient for storing multimedia files. For example, the maximum file size in the FAT system - 4 gigabytes - can easily be exceeded when transferring a 10-15 minute digital video tape to a computer. Therefore, new file systems are being developed that can store very large files, such as the ZFS system on the Solaris OS. Another requirement is to ensure confidentiality of information, which leads to the need to implement encryption capabilities in file systems (which is implemented, for example, in the ZFS file system).

Cloud computing support- a completely new trend in the development of the OS, which was initiated by the "cloud" OS Windows Azure by Microsoft (see "OS for cloud computing (cloud computing). Windows Azure").

New operating systems of the Windows family

Let's give a brief overview of the capabilities of the new operating systems of the Windows family, which were not reflected in detail in the course.

Windows Vista has the following new features: new GUI style (Windows Aero); built-in toolkit. NET Framework 3.0, which provides execution managed code. NET; single system information search WinFS; funds security management applications (in particular, the launch of installation applications only with the explicit consent of the user); subsystems Windows Presentation Foundation(support for modern advanced GUI), Windows Communication Foundation(support of modern communication technologies with the help of services); Windows Workflow Foundation(also called CardSpace) - support user authentication, planning and organization of work .

Windows Server 2008- the most modern server OS of the Windows family. It provides: support for the new version of the Internet Protocol IPv6; improved network support; parallel programming support; new powerful command processor Windows PowerShell; virtualization and application emulation tools using technology Hyper-V.

Windows 7- the newest at the moment (2010) OS of the Windows series. It provides support for a new kind of user interface - multitouch; Internet traffic caching tools ( Branch cache); a unique set of desktop backgrounds for each country; improved support for device drivers; more flexible security and firewall settings; development of the Aero GUI interface first implemented in Windows Vista.

New trends in OS development

Midori project. Midori- a Microsoft Research project that began in the early 2000s. entitled Singularity. Midori- research OS implemented on managed code which is the basis of the platform. NET and provides full type control, security, etc., which greatly improves reliability and code security. However, before Midori, OS developers preferred less reliable, but more efficient ways of implementing the OS in C and C++, so, in our opinion, Midori is a very bold experiment. The managed code in OS Midori implements, among other things, both the OS kernel and device drivers. Midori provides effective support for parallelization, which is especially important with modern trends in the development of hardware platforms. To improve the security of running applications, Midori provides them with protection based on the execution of each application in its own separate "sandbox" (sandbox) One of the main features of Midori is that she is Internet-centric OS. In the future, the transition of Microsoft's OS development from the Windows platform to the new Midori platform is not ruled out.

OS graphic shells

As already noted, every modern OS has a graphical shell. Graphical OS shells provide the following main features.

Convenient graphical user interface.

Ability to perform any system settings using the GUI. It should be, according to our personal experience, that the graphical shells of the Linux OS should be especially noted in this regard.

Support for new trends in the development of interfaces– multi-touch, Tablet PC, etc.

Unification of graphical shells for various operating systems. Different operating systems use CDE, KDE, GNOME graphical shells. Perhaps in the near future their list will expand.

Note that the shells for different operating systems are practically indistinguishable (they all have, for example, a Start button, a My Documents folder, etc.), which is convenient for end users, as it simplifies the study of the working environment.