Bits'n'Bytes

As heard on CJCD

Episode 3

Good morning, and welcome to this week's installment of Bits 'n' Bytes - brought to you by Bowco Computer Services.

Because a lot of work that gets done on a computer is operating system specific, I have to ask every computer owner who contacts me, what operating system do you have? Many people don't quite understand what an operating system is, or does, so this can sometimes lead to some confusion.

For starters, computers only speak one language - and that's binary. A switch is on, or it's off - that's all they know. Since there are millions and millions of switches in a single computer, we need something to control them. That's where an operating system comes in. It is the computer's translator. It translates everything into the most basic computer language - binary.

Now, programmers can create programs written in many different "higher level" computer languages. The operating system has to be able to translate every one of these languages back to the basic 1's and 0's the computer can use.

Think of it as the 21st century equivalent of Star Trek's universal translator. No matter what language or combination of clicks and grunts the aliens speak, it comes out as something we can understand at our level.

Now, even operating systems evolve. There have been several dozen operating systems since the '50s, but the first well known ones were MacIntosh and MS-DOS.

MacIntosh has since evolved into MacOS X and MS-DOS is the basis for all the different Windows operating systems - Windows 3.1, Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000 and now Windows XP.

To find out which evolution you have on your Windows based system, right click on the My Computer icon and pick Properties, or watch closely when you first turn on your computer. Either method will tell you which operating system you're using - which you can relay to techie guys like me.

Click here to get an idea what goes on inside you computer when you type on the keyboard.

Stay tuned next week for “What's a Service Pack and why should I care?”

I’m Computer Dave, thanks for your time.