What is an Operating System?

The term Operating System or OS is almost synonymous with Microsoft Windows, however there are a plethora of other OSs available; ranging from iOS to Linux - but what exactly does an Operating System do?

An OS has three core responsibilities:

• Manage the computer's hardware resources
• Provide a user interface
• Execute programs and services

Essentially an OS provides users with access to computer hardware give a consistent experience across devices through the use of features such as file systems and themes.

Linux

These chapters and challenges are going to focus on the Linux operating system, which was created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds.

Linux is a free and open-source kernel, which is implemented by various distributions, some of the most popular include Ubuntu, Debian and CentOS.

Although these distributions come with different pre-installed packages and have different software available to them, the overall experience is pretty consistent between them.

Kali Linux is a penetration testing distribution of Linux that comes with lots of common tools required for ethical hacking and digital forensics, although it is not covered it may be something you wish to research yourself.