Kernels of Different Operating Systems - Coursework Example

Compare and Contrast the Kernels of Different Operating Systems By ID # Table of Contents An operating system is like an engine that drives the whole machine. In this scenario, an operating system is believed to be most important element of a computer system. In simple words, an operating system is system software that facilitates other applications and programs to run and work effectively. An operating system forms the bridge between a machine and its users. Without an operating system, the machine is useless. At the present, there are a wide variety of operating systems which are designed for different machines and purposes. For instance, one of the most commonly used operating system is Microsoft Windows. This operating system is developed for common users. However, there are many other kinds of operating systems which serve specific operations and functions of individual users and organizations. In this scenario, Kernel is the most important element of an operating system. It allows an operating system to carry out some specific routines and tasks. The basic purpose of this research is to compare and contrast kernels of different operating system. This paper presents a comparative analysis of different operating systems and their kernels. Introduction An operating system is the most important element of a system. It runs all the software applications and tools installed on a computer (Tanenbaum, 2008). In this scenario, the kernel is the "core" or inner most important part of any OS (operating system). In fact, an operating system uses the capabilities of the kernel to offer a wide variety of callable routines that facilitate other applications to display text, access files and graphics, get input from a mouse or keyboard, and some other similar routines and tasks. As discussed above, at the present there are numerous kinds of operating systems which are developed for different environments. For instance, some of them include existing freeware and commercial OSs, and others are being developed at various universities as technology and research based projects. In the same way, these operating systems have some powerful features as well as flaws which make them suitable for diverse kinds of functions and hardware. In view of the fact that in the past few years, there have been massive developments and advancements in computers, as a result kernels have improved as well. In this scenario, some of the earlier operating systems are yet based on low-performance hardware of the 60s and 70s; however they do offer constancy as newer operating systems require advanced capacity of contemporary processors and still have to prove themselves (Sewell, 2013; Dumon, 1998; Tanenbaum, 2008). Without a doubt, kernel is the most significant element of an operating system, and it is composed of two key elements. In this scenario, one is known as user space (un-privileged operating mode) and other element is kernel space (privileged operating mode). Additionally, the historical framework of monolithic kernel and normal kernel offers all fundamental system services like that memory management, file system, input/output (I/O) communication and interrupt handling in the privileged operating system mode. In this scenario, built-in layered style constructs the basic process management up to the interfaces to the rest of the OS. However, the execution of all these fundamental services in kernel space can involve a wide variety of issues that can be very serious, for instance, huge kernel size results in various issues of maintainability and lack of extensibility. In the same way, a large size kernel with a large number of lines of code (LOC) can make the system more defective. Hence, there is need for re-compilation of the entire operating system’s kernel during error management and addition of new characteristics and processes in the system such as resources and time, resources those might not be accessible in a small size device like that a cell-phone (Motlhabi, 2010; Islam & Campbell, 1996; Dumon, 1998). In addition, determining weaknesses and benefits of operating systems is a challenging task for the reason that the majority of operating systems is designed to serve a precise group of clients or systems or is used on an explicit base of systems. Though, there a large number of operating systems those are considered as general-purpose operating systems, however the initial operating system that is capable of managing all kinds of operations and tasks as powerfully as one should desire, still needs to be developed (Dumon, 1998; Islam & Campbell, 1996). This report presents a detailed and comparative analysis of operating systems in the context of their kernels. This report compares and contrasts some of the major features and aspects of latest operating systems’ kernels. Some of the important operating systems that this report discusses include MS Windows, Apple, Linux and. In this scenario, this report analyzes some of the major aspects of these kernels such as their functioning and features and various other aspects. Microsoft Windows First operating system that this research is going to analyze is the Microsoft Windows. In view of the fact there are so many versions of MS Windows are all of them are suitable for different purposes. For this research I have selected MS Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft Windows 7 MS Windows 7 is based on latest version 6 of Microsoft’s NT kernel. The research has proved and acknowledged it as a most reliable; mature, and effective however it is old so it needs to be rebuilt. Traditionally, Microsoft’s NT kernel was built without taking into consideration security features. However, it has currently patched many features to deal with issues and bug fixing that decrease the efficiency of code and make it slower. However, in order to deal with these issues Microsoft has developed a new kernel that is known as MinWin, which is still under development. Without a doubt, MS Windows 7 still does not make use of MinWin. On the other hand, Windows 7 offers a large number of advanced, reliable and improved services as compared to its earlier version. Microsoft has history of software consistency; it is an admitted fact that each latest feature of Windows operating system will bring-in some kind of issue or bugs. In addition, a large number of business customers like to wait until service pack is offered previous to starting to improve to new Windows version (Sucahyo, 2009; Christopher, 2011; Otnes, 2011; Jannini & Harper, 2011). Additionally, if we talk about performance of MS Windows 7, its kernel makes use of resources more competently and will yet have improved working efficiency and performance as compared to earlier versions of MS operating systems. It is believed that both the computer working and performance heavily depend on size and nature of applications. For instance some software applications can execute and work faster on one OS platform on the other hand some applications can execute faster through emulation on some other operating system. In fact, some of the Windows operating systems based games can also execute in the same way on Ubuntu by using wine. There is another most important aspect related to kernel’s performance and that is reliability. Without a doubt, Windows 7’s kernel offers improved reliability as compared to its earlier version. This new version of Windows 7 is more reliable than its older versions (Sucahyo, 2009; Christopher, 2011; Otnes, 2011; Jannini & Harper, 2011). Moreover, the kernel used in Windows 7 offers a great deal of power efficiency. In this scenario, Windows 7 has incorporated a wide variety of features to trigger a service simply when it is necessary. Additionally, the basic purpose of this feature is to improve power utilization with longer CPU idle time. On the other hand, this feature was already available on the majority of other operating systems such as Mac OS X and Ubuntu for years. In fact, this feature is not believed to be innovative and effective on BSD and Linux. However, the initiation of this feature in the Widows 7 is attractive for the reason that previously it was simply accessible through 3rd party systems. In addition, Windows 7’s kernel also contains an attractive feature known as WYSIWYG that offers a display color calibration wizard characteristic. However, it was previously available through 3rd-party software manufacturers. On the other hand, this feature is already being offered by MAC OS for a long time. In this scenario, Mac-OS-X launched improved color calibration for several input and output devices in cooperation with Apple ColorSync. In the same way, Ubuntu also offers color matching services. However, it depends on the quality and efficiency of hardware as with poor drivers capability, it is extremely limited (Sucahyo, 2009; Christopher, 2011; Otnes, 2011; Jannini & Harper, 2011). Apple Macintosh This section presents a detailed analysis of kernel used in Apple Macintosh systems. In this scenario, this section will discuss some of the important features of its kernel along with their working. Apple Macintosh OS X The kernel that is used in Mac OSX is known as BSD kernel. Though, BSD’s developers initially focused on improving the accuracy of this kernel, however BSD kernel is more powerful and reliable as compared to other kernels (such as Windows’s kernels). On the other hand, by offering Mac OSX in small number of machines, Apple Corporation is able to improve the performance as well as diminish compatibility issues of Mac BSD kernel. Though, Apple has to improve the performance of its applications on top of kernel as Apple Corporation has decided to build-up their personal desktop applications. On the other hand, it is observed that Apple Darwin has arrived at such maturity that it can offer improved performance with fewer issues as compared to its OS 9. In addition, Mac OSX’s BSD kernel is believed to be a mature and efficient Kernel (Sucahyo, 2009; Germain, 2009). Moreover, the security feature of BSD kernel is similar to Mac OSX and Ubuntu. However, the research has shown that there is less chance of virus attacks in Mac OSX and Ubuntu however these operating systems require users to update operating system as well as application to deal with a wide variety of security and privacy issues. In addition, the feature of power efficiency has already been offered on Mac OS X for years through BSD Kernel. On the other hand, this feature is nothing attractive and innovative on Linux. Additionally, an operating system’s performance is also one of the major aspects. In this scenario, it is believed that Mac’s BSD Kernel offers similar working efficiency on similar hardware initiating from version 10.2. In addition, Mac OSX as well offers quicker performance on every latest version. However, both Ubuntu and Windows 7 have diverse capability improvement directions. In view of the fact that Windows 7 makes use of 3D desktop that takes toll on a technology based arrangement with slow 3D card. Moreover, Windows 7 offers improved desktop working efficiency besides Windows 7 and Windows Vista where these operating systems need a number of advanced hardware resources (Sucahyo, 2009; Germain, 2009). Linux In this section I will discuss some of the important aspects of the Linux Kernel 2.6. This section basically presents an analysis of features of Linux Kernel 2.6 and its comparison with kernels of other operating systems. Linux Kernel 2.6 The release of kernel 2.6 by Linux, demonstrates serious rivalry to major RTOS vendors such as WinCE and VxWorks. Without a doubt, the kernel used by the Linux initiated a large number of new characteristics that make it an outstanding operating system for computer systems. In fact, with these new characteristics this Kernel has offered more and more improved and real-time working efficiency and performance, simpler portability to latest computers, capability for huge memory models, capability for microcontrollers their management and an enhanced input output system. Additionally, the development of kernel 2.6 is one of the important steps taken by Linux operating system towards research and development regarding enterprise servers and also support the new technology based embedded systems. In this scenario, for high-end technology based systems, these new features target scalability, performance upgrading, better throughput and support for SMP systems and hardware. On the other hand, for embedded technology based systems that which are at its peak nowadays, new architecture and processor categories have been incorporated which include support for MMU-less technology based arrangement that does not encompass hardware support and controlled memory administration method. Additionally, a totally new group of drivers, multimedia and audio features have been incorporated to manage the desktop setting (Deshpande, 2004; Santhanam, 2013; Zhu, 2010; Germain, 2009; Soltys, 2006). In addition, some of the major advantages attained through Linux Kernel 206 scheduler comprise SMP efficiency that is enhanced if there is work to be performed, all the processors should work. Then we have some waiting processes that require us to make sure that no process should stay without processor time for long time periods; as well, no procedure should take an unfairly greater amount of CPU working and operational time. Additionally, it also includes the SMP affinity that is about the processors capability that it should affine to one CPU also will not rebound among CPUs. Moreover, this new Kernel architecture has also offered a great deal of support in the form of priorities which allow us to make sure that less significant jobs should be assigned less priority. Furthermore, load balancing is also one of the most important aspects that this kernel effectively addresses. This feature is about scheduler time reduction for the priority of some process that produces more load as compared to processor can manage. In the same way, another major benefit offered by Kernel 2.6 is the interactive performance that is offered by the new scheduler, in this scenario the client should not perceive the system having high time to respond to things similar to keyboard taps, mouse clicks or even under extremely high loads times (Deshpande, 2004; Santhanam, 2013; Zhu, 2010; Germain, 2009; Soltys, 2006). Moreover, enhanced support for NPTL and threading model capability is also offered by the Kernel 2.6. In this scenario, the enhanced threading model in 2.6 was as well performed by Ingo Molnar. In fact, this threading model is based on the concept of 1:1 threading model (one kernel thread for one client thread), it incorporates in-kernel capability for the new NPTL (Native Posix Threading Library), which was developed by Molnar and Ulrich Drepper. (Deshpande, 2004; Santhanam, 2013; Zhu, 2010; Germain, 2009; Soltys, 2006). BDS FreeBSD This section discusses some of the important aspects of FreeBSD kernel. The objective is to compare its features with the kernels of other operating systems. This kernel is the based on the FreeBSD OS. Basically, this kernel is used for handling memory, implementing security features, disk access, networking and much more functionalities of operating systems and management of services. In view of the fact that FreeBSD is dynamically configurable, however it is yet intermittently essential to compile and configure a custom kernel. In this operating system kernel bootstrapping methods are employed to initiate the system execution. In this scenario, initially the 4.4BSD kernel has to be loaded into the main memory of the computer processor and once this process has been completed, it has to move through a start stage to start the hardware into a recognized state. After that the operating system’s kernel carries out a process known as auto configuration, which involves the identification and configuration of computer system peripherals that are linked to the system processor. The system starts executing in single-user style as a start-up script performs disk checks as well as initiates the quota assessment and accounting. At last, the start-up script initiates the broad system services and then starts-up the system to complete multiuser processes. All through the multi-user process, procedures wait for login working and operational on the terminal lines and network connection ports and slots that have been determined for client access. When a user login status is checked, a login procedure is spawned which authenticates the user. When the user login confirmation is taken, a login shell is developed which allows the clients to execute extra procedures (The FreeBSD Documentation Project1, 2013; The FreeBSD Documentation Project2, 2013). In addition, BSD Kernel systems, especially FreeBSD, encompasses advanced working potential and performance as compared to traditional Linux kernel. However, in many cases there is small or no distinction in technology based system performance. In several situations, Linux can perform much better than FreeBSD. On the other hand, BSD systems are believed to be more reliable, principally because of their well-developed code base. The experiments have shown that BSD can run the majority of Linux binaries, as Linux operating systems are not able to run BSD binaries. In the same way, a large number of BSD applications are able to as well execute binaries from other UNIX similar systems. Consequently, BSD can offer a simpler transfer route from other systems as compared to Linux operating system (The FreeBSD Documentation Project3, 2013). Moreover, it is believed that GNU/Linux contains a wide variety of hardware capabilities and has been transferred to more platforms as compared to FreeBSD. Because of the more integrated arrangement of FreeBSD compared to GNU/Linux distributions, facilitation hardware is expected to be more simply and consistently handled and configured through FreeBSD. In fact, a number of open source systems built for Unix-like systems can be transferred to both GNU/Linux and FreeBSD distributions. This frequently outlined that, it is probable to execute into troubles when transferring FreeBSD application to Linux as well as vice versa, as they make use of a diverse APIs (application programming interfaces). In addition, at the present FreeBSD ports can support more than 24,004 software and application packages, while Ubuntu 12.04 appears with 44,893 software and applications packages (WikiVS, 2013; Webinos, 2012; The FreeBSD Documentation Project3, 2013). Conclusion An operating system is a fundamental aspect of any computer system for the reason that users access and use their machine using this operating system. An operating system is system software that facilitates other programs and applications to run effectively. In other words, computer users access and use these applications using an operating system. In an operating system a kernel is a most important element, which allows an operating system to perform different critical tasks. This report has presented a detailed analysis of some of the aspects of different operating systems’ kernels. This report has presented a comparative analysis of different kernels used in various operating systems. This research has attempted to highlight some of the fundamental aspects of MS Windows, Apple, Linux and FreeBSD based Kernel design, working, functionality and approaches. The report has outlined various aspects of different kernels. MS Windows exists for many years and it is being used by a large number of people for different tasks on the other hand Linux is young as well as yet has long way to go. In addition, these operating systems are installed for diverse areas and based on the popular operating system theories. The most challenging barrier for them is to perform the kernel application and debugging. On the other hand, every operating system’s Kernel has its own features, capabilities and performance parameters and their use depends on users how they want to use them. For instance, if we want fast and compatible performance then we can use windows’ kernel however if we want match less security then we will apply Apple kernel and if we want free kernel support and capability then we can use FreeBDS. References Christopher, D., 2011. Windows 7: trials and tribulations. In SIGUCCS 11 Proceedings of the 39th annual ACM SIGUCCS conference., 2011. ACM. Deshpande, A.R., 2004. 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[Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://solaris-x86.org/documents/articles/kernel_comparison.pdf" http://solaris-x86.org/documents/articles/kernel_comparison.pdf [Accessed 22 March 2013]. Read More