Lesson 7

An operating systems provides two types of user interface(UI) so allow users to

access and interact with computer. 1. Command Line Interface(CLI) or character
User interface(CUI) 2. Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Command Line based OS:
In CLI (Command Line Interface) or Character user interface(CUI) , the user
interacts with OS by typing commands or instructions on a command line.
Various commands need to be typed for carrying out various jobs like creating,
deleting, editing, renaming and printing a file.
In CLI, each command represents an executable program which is run when the
command is typed with proper parameters.
MSDOS (developed by Microsoft Corporation )and Unix ( developed by AT & T)
are the operating system which provides command line based OS
Advantages : 1. This interface faster as the commands are already known.
2. This interface needs less memory (RAM) 3.Full CPU processing time is not
utilised
Disadvantages: 1. It is not user-friendly as to remember a lot of commands.
2. Commands should be typed as per syntax
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MS-DOS:
•Microsoft Disk Operating System is a non-graphical command line OS created for IBM compatible
computers. MSDOS operating system provides CLI called command prompt. This is Single user,
single tasking os.
•MS-DOS has predefined command internal and external commands.
•Commands are executed by command interpreter (command.com) by translating them into
system calls. Command interpreter reside outside of kernel so that kernel is not affected by user.
•IO.sys and msdos.sys of DOS includes internal commands like dir, cls, cd,md,rd, ren, del copy,
move and external command includes programs as chkdsk, format, fdisk etc.
UNIX :
•UNIX shell is command line interface similar to old DOS prompt on the PC platform. Bourne
shell(sh), ksh,bash are the examples of the shell.
• It uses a hierarchical file system that allows easy maintenance and efficient implementation.
• CPU scheduling in Unix is simple priority algorithm.
•The UNIX operating system (OS) consists of a kernel layer, a shell layer , utilities and
applications layer. These three layers create a portable, multiuser, multitasking operating system.
There are multiple versions of the OS, but every version has the exact same structure.
•Unix consists of two separate parts kernel and the system programs. Kernel interact shell
program provides the command line interface. It accepts input commands and interprets them
and executes them.
•Typically a user access a computer through an application program’s interface and the application
logic communicates with Unix through an application programming interface called POSIX
(Portable Operating System Interface for Unix.
 Graphical User Interface (GUI)
GUI is an alternative and more user friendly method to interface with the
operating system. GUI provides a rectangular area of screen called Window in
which file programs, directories and system functions are represented as small
images or symbols called as icons.
A GUI provides a window and menu based graphical interface that can be
operated by using a pointing device like a mouse.
Advantages:
1. GUI are ease of the use, operate and provides better accessibility
2. User can switch quickly between tasks on GUI interface.
3. GUI allows multiple programs and or instances to be displayed
simultaneously.
Disadvantages :
4. It uses more computer memory.
5. GUI becomes more complex if user needs to communicates with the
computer directly.
6. Slow speed because of long pointer operations.
Windows and Linux operating systems are GUI based OS.
Windows :
• Windows 7 is an operating system that Microsoft has produced for use on personal
computers. The 64-bit version of windows 7 is now commonly installed on large
client systems.
• Windows architecture follows a layered system approach of modules. The major
layers are the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer), Kernel and the executive. All of
these layers run in kernel mode and a group of subsystems and services run in user
mode.
• Hardware Abstraction Layer :- The major goal of windows 7 was to build the
operating system which would be potable across platforms. The HAL is responsible
for hiding dissimilarities in hardware chipset from upper levels of the operating
system.
• Kernel : Scheduling of threads, low level processor synchronisation, interrupt
handling, switching between user mode and kernel mode.
• Executive : The executive is the upper portion of the operating system. It is written in
C and is architecture independent. It consists of components that work together to
accomplish a certain task. These components are I/O manager, process manager,
virtual memory manager, security reference monitor, cache manager, plug and play
manager, power manager, registry and booting, advanced local procedure call facility.
Linux : is created by Linus Torvalds.
•Linux is freely distributed OS. There are no licensing fees. Linux is used by millions
of people around the world. Programmers can even modify the source code and
create their own unique versions of the Linux OS.
•Linux is available in various distributions or flavours include Red Hat, Ubuntu,
Centos, Debian, Open suse etc.
•Linux supports several hardware platforms including Intel, Power PC, Dec Alpha,
Sun sparc and Motorola.
•Most Linux system provides either the desktop Environment(KDE) or GNOME inter
interface both of which are built on top of x-windows and resemble the windows
interface.
•GNOME ‘s user interface starts in the activities overview mode which allows you
to launch new applications, switch windows and more them between workspace.
GNOME was originally an acronym for GNU Network Object Model Environment
•The KDE is a graphical Desktop environment for Linux providing the linux users with
various x-windows utilities. The KDE desktop contains three main tools to access the
applications on the linux system namely panel icons, desktop icons, , and menus.
 Difference between CLI (or CUI) and GUI
SN. CLI GUI
1. It is a text based used to interact It is a visual based interface which
with software and operating features the use of graphic images,
system by typing commands into including windows, icons and menus.
interface and receive a response
in the same way.

2. CLI is faster and difficult to use GUI is slower and easier to use than CLI
than GUI

3. CLI consumes low memory GUI consumes large memory

4. In CLI commands have to be
typed in the command line to
execute them
In GUI one can point and click on icons to
execute commands. A mouse is the most
common device to navigate through a
GUI although the keyboard is used
sometimes.

5. Not much flexible GUI is more flexible

6. Less user friendly More user friendly
7. Eg. DOS, UNIX Eg. Windows, Linux etc.