GUI Operating System

What is the GUI Operating System?

GUI stands for Graphical User Interface. And GUI-based operating system means an operating system that consists of a graphical user interface to communicate between the user side and the computer hardware. For establishing communication between the user and the computer system, we need some medium through which we can communicate with the computer system. A computer system can not understand human language. Neither a computer can understand the language of human beings. So, whenever we request a process for the system, the operating system works as a medium that communicates between all the components of the computer system.

An operating system may be GUI-based or maybe CUI (Command User Interface) based. A GUI-based operating system is easy to learn and operate as we have every control like selecting a program, opening a program, etc. on the screen. The evolution of operating systems gradually makes the interface easier and more flexible. Some of the popular modern GUI-based operating systems are macOS, MS Windows, Ubuntu, etc.

In today's world, we can see an application of graphical based interface at almost every place like ATM machines, Cell phones, Ticket booking applications, Video games, etc. We can say that a GUI operating system shows all the interactions between users, hardware, and software in a visual representation. Given below is an illustration of MS-Window which is a graphical user interface-based operating system. From the beginning till now, there are many operating systems have been used but the most popularly used and common operating systems are MS-DOS, MS-Windows, LINUX, macOS, etc.

What are the Elements of a GUI Operating System?

As we know, a GUI-based operating system consists of the system accessing tools such as a cursor, buttons, pop-ups, etc. There are many programming languages that have the advantage of developing a graphical user interface. Some of the languages are C#, and Java because these languages are object-oriented languages and they are able to run GUIs in a browser or in a desktop application. There are some more languages that are efficient for making GUI-based applications like HTML5, JavaScript, Python, C, or C++.

An operating system that is based on a graphical user interface consists of many elements. These elements are combined together to form an operating system. Also, these elements help users to establish communication between the user and the computer system and we can interact with them. Let us discuss the elements of a GUI-based operating system.

• Button: A button is the graphical representation of a button that does an action when we click on it. Suppose, we have a button that says exit. So that particular program will terminate and we will exit from that program when clicked on exit.
• Dialogue Box: It is a pop-up-like box that appears with some information on the screen. It may also ask the user to give some input like pressing any key, or typing some text, and will respond according to that input.
• Icon: It is simply the graphical representation of any file, window application, program, file or folder, etc.
• Menu: It offers the user many options from which users can select their choices.
• Ribbon: Ribbons are used to group some program activities together and work as a replacement for the File menu.
• Tab: Tabs are found at the top of a browser. Different tabs represent different pages we are working on and we can switch between tabs by clicking over them.
• Toolbar: It is found on the top of an application. It offers a clickable sub-option for that particular software or application and controls its functions.
• Window: The window is the whole section of that particular program that can be seen on display in a rectangular shape, which we are using currently.

Types of GUI-Based Operating Systems

The first-ever program that was based on graphics was developed in 1962 by Ivan Sutherland at MIT. The name of the program was Sketchpadwhich enables a user to draw engineering drawings with coordinated graphics. The program was operated using a light pen and the program works in real-time.

Following are the different types of operating systems that are based on a Graphical user interface:

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is one popular operating system in today's world that is based on the graphical user interface. The different versions of MS Windows are Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, etc and Windows 11 is the latest version now.

Linux

Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 who was a programmer. It is an open-source operating system that contains a Linux kernel, supporting system software, and libraries. Linux is a free, open-source operating system that is used in most offices, libraries, schools, and colleges because of its security features. Various user interfaces of Linux are GNOME, Mate, KDE, Cinnamon, etc. Different versions of Linux are UBUNTU, SOLAS, LINUX MINT, DEBIAN, etc.

Android

Android is the most common version of the GUI-based operating system in today's world. This operating system can be found on cell phones, tablets, etc.

Apple iOS

Apple iOS is the second most popular GUI-based operating system after Android. This operating system was developed particularly for apple devices like iPhones, iPads, Tablets, etc.

MacOS

The macOS is also used for Apple devices but this operating system is limited to Apple laptops and desktops rather than apple mobiles. Some of the most popular features that macOS provides are Siri and FaceTime.

How Does Graphical User Interface Work?

The graphical user interface has some set of rules that is followed for making the interaction between the user and the computer system. We simply do what we want to do using the visual controls on our screen. We do not need to worry about what is happening inside the system and processors. A GUI carries out commands by using the help of windows, icons, menus etc. These are used to select, delete move, or copy a file in a system. All the GUI-based activities and navigation are done by using a mouse. In some cases, keyboard shortcuts can be also used for this purpose.

Suppose, we want to open a particular file from file manager which is application software. Here we will use our mouse as a pointing device that will help us to navigate through the computer screen. First of all, we will move the pointer over the icon of file manager and then we will double-click over the file manager to open that application. After that, the file manager will start to run in the background and we will see the visual representation of the file manager on our display.

What are Examples of a GUI-based Operating System?

Following are examples of GUI-based operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows
• Apple System 7 and macOS
• Chrome OS
• Ubuntu which is a Linux variant, uses a GUI interface.

Advantages of GUI Operating System

The following are the advantages of a GUI-based operating system.

• One of the most useful advantages of the GUI operating system is that the usability is increased in this type of OS as all the stuff is available on your screen which is easy to handle by an average user too.
• There are many facilities that we can see in only GUI-based operating systems like- dragging drop for transferring a file, and using relevant icons for a program like trash-bin is used for trash file storage.
• As all the pieces of stuff are visually presented on screen, it becomes easy for the user to handle the system even if a user is a very beginner user.

Disadvantages of GUI Operating System

The following are the disadvantages of a GUI-based operating system.- Graphical user interface-based operating systems are less flexible.

• It needs more storage for processing the tasks graphically.
• In this operating system, some commands take longer to get executed.
• Difficult to assign functionality to the appropriate layers of the operating system.