Question:
Dual Roles of Operating Systems: Are they in Conflict?
It is said that there is a dual definition of what an operating system must do. The first one is to present a "virtual machine" to the user which isolates him/her from the bare-bones hardware and is user friendly and effective. The other one is that it has to manage in the most efficient way the (always) limited resources of the computer system. It is also stated that these two goals often conflict. Do you agree? If yes, explain why and what you would do to resolve this. If you do not agree, give an example of some mutual cooperation. Does the concept of the process play a meaningful part in either or both of these tasks?