Why Learn About Operating Systems?

Re:Why Learn About Operating Systems? by chromejs10 on Monday December 05, 2011 @10:33PM (#3317723)

Because OS will give you a better feel for how threading works, for how file systems work. Just because you (probably) wont be working on OS source code, doesn't mean the behind the scenes knowledge wont be beneficial because you will be getting a better grasp of Computer Science as a whole. I have friends who work on Android apps, and often times they have to dig into the Android source code to see what the hell is going on. The more sense you can make out of the code, the easier it will be to find what you are looking for.

Also, it is considered a weeding out course in many schools. It separates those who are willing to dig deeper into the world of CS and those who will either quit the major or become a desk drone.

Signed, Your CS112 TA

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Re:Why Learn About Operating Systems? by capkutay on Monday December 05, 2011 @11:25PM (#3317878)

Thanks...I remember you mentioned some of this to me. My one thought was that there are some pretty cool applications courses in our department (distributed system design/AI). Out of the upper division classes, OS grabs my attention/interest less than others. But I was wrong to assume that learning about operating systems didn't have applications to what I want to do in the future with CS. The answers here cleared it up.

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