Task of OS At the simplest level, an operating system does two things: 1. It manages the hardware and software resources of the system. In a desktop computer , these resources include such things as the processor , memory , disk space , etc. (On a cell phone, they include the keypad , the screen , the address book , the phone dialer , the battery and the network connection.) 2. It provides a stable , consistent way for applications to deal with the hardware without having to know all the details of the hardware. The first task, managing the hardware and software resources, is very important, as various programs and input methods compete for the attention of the central processing unit ( CPU ) and demand memory, storage and input/output ( I/O ) bandwidth for their own purposes. In this capacity, the operating system plays the role of the good parent, making sure that each applicati...