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4. Single User, Multi-tasking

You will find this kind of operating system on a personal computer. The operating system is designed mainly with a single user in mind, but it can deal with many applications running at the same time.

Another word for Multi-tasking is Multi-programming

Example operating systems are

• Windows
• Linux
• Mac OS X

Once again, the main parts of the operating system can be divided into 4 parts:

• The Kernel
• Device Drivers
• User Interface
• System Utilities

The difference compared to the Single-Use, Single Application operating system is that it must now handle running many different applications at the same time.

The memory available is also very different, for example it is quite normal to have Gigabytes of RAM available on a personal computer which is what allows so many applications to run.