Linux MUOS Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Linux MUOS Report - Essay Example Servers, such as a Linux or Windows Server, 2009, can provide real-time access to numerous users on a network. Most multiuser systems use preemptive, multitasking technology. These systems are intended to handle up to about 10 simultaneous users before they buckle under the load. A server system can typically handle hundreds of users at once. Linux is a UNIX look-alike system that is popular as a server operating system in business, education, and government and is rapidly replacing UNIX (Benvenuti 2006). Linux operating systems are particularly popular for servers because they take advantage of a huge open source software community. Open source software is typically developed by thousands of volunteers, relies on peer review, contains code in the public domain, and is typically distributed free. The principle features of a multi-user operating system Resource Sharing One of the critical responsibilities of an OS is to manage the available resources such as memory, or processor time. Multiuser systems must implement an execution setting in which several processes can be active concomitantly and compete for system resources, mainly the CPU (Bovet and Cesati n.d.). Even though a computer has two or more CPUs, it is still important that one user does not dominate all of the time on a CPU; the computer might appear to hang and possibly crashing the computer. The operating system uses specialized programs called resource managers to ensure that memory is used properly without any memory conflicts (Palmer and Walters n.d., p. 12). The operating system will give each user a time slice on the CPU. Each user does a little work during its time slice and then hands the CPU access over to the next user for its time slice. Multi-tasking Multitasking is another crucial feature of a multiuser operating system. A multitasking OS can handle more than one processor, as the jobs are executed different processors. (Buchanan 1999, p. 42). The running state of the program is called a process or task. A multitasking OS supports two or more simultaneously executing processes. A multiuser OS allows concurrent admittance to a computer system via two or more terminals. Although commonly associated with multiprogramming, multiuser OS does not imply multitasking. A multiuser system usually breaks the disk space up into user directories, so that each user has his data files in a separate place (Baldwin 1986, p. 271). Background Processing In a multiuser operating system, two or more active processes are permits. During the execution of such processes, the OS protects the memory space reserved for one process from other processes. Out of multiple processes, most of these systems only process and recognize input from mouse, keyboard, or other input devices (Yadav 2010, p.146). This process is known as the foreground processes. The rest of the processes are said to be background processes. Background processes cannot accept interactive participation from a user, but they can access information stored on a disk, ready to write it to the video display. In a large multiuser OS, the number may be hundreds of processes running, with each having several active services at once. In fact, even though no users use the system that is running, dozens of background processes, called daemons (Liu, Yue, & Guo 2011, p. 82), are executing. Types of multi-user operating system Multi-processor There are many types of multiuser operati