List of the Top and Most Popular Operating Systems with Features and Comparison. Pick the Best OS for your business or personal use from this list. At its core, an operating system (OS) quietly runs your computer’s entire show. You may never see it working, but you definitely feel the results. It keeps everything organized, responsive, and protected. Here’s how: It manages hardware. An OS is more than background software; it’s the heartbeat of your computer. At the most basic level, this is how operating systems work: they connect your hardware with your software, making sure your PC actually responds to you. operating system (OS), program that manages a computer ’s resources, especially the allocation of those resources among other programs. Typical resources include the central processing unit (CPU), computer memory, file storage, input/output (I/O) devices, and network connections. ChromiumOS is an open source operating system development version of ChromeOS. Both operating systems are based on the Linux kernel. ChromeOS is designed to work exclusively with web applications, though has been updated to run Android apps with full support for Google Play Store. An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. [1] An Operating System (OS) is a software that manages and handles hardware and software resources of a computing device. Manages computer resources such as CPU, memory, and files.