Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
b.
Who actually controls Linux and its development?
c.
To what extent is an open source policy commercially vi
able? Explain your answer.
■
Exercises
1. a.
Give a careful definition of each of the words or phrases
listed in the “Terminology from This Chapter.”
b.
In reviewing these terms, which seem related specifically
to operating systems, and which seem related to other ele
ments of a computer? Briefly explain your answer.
2.
One computer system displays a picture of a mailbox on a
corner of the screen. When the user receives new email, the
mailbox display turns red and updates a count of the number
of unread email messages received. After a couple of min
utes, the mailbox returns to a white color—regardless of
whether the new message was read or not. This same scenario
regarding mail holds whether or not the user is engaged in
other work, such as editing documents.
a.
Does this description contain sufficient information to de
termine whether the operating system supports multitask
ing? Explain.
b.
What, if any, changes would be required in the above de
scription if the system allowed only single tasking?
Explain.
3.
The transfer of money from a checking account to a savings
account might follow these steps:
a.
Determine the initial balance for the checking account.
b.
Determine the initial balance for the savings account.
c.
Deduct the amount to be transferred from the checking ac
count.
d.
Add the amount to be transferred to the savings account.
e.
Record the new balance for the savings account.
f.
Record the new balance for the checking account.
The transfer of money from savings to checking would be anal
ogous (with the words
checking
and
savings
swapped in steps a
through f)
