Operating System Internals: Kernel, Processes, and Memory

Are you curious about what happens inside your computer when you run a program? Understanding the core mechanics of an operating system is essential for writing efficient, reliable software. This course provides a detailed, text-based exploration of OS fundamentals, focusing on the concepts that underpin every modern system. You will move beyond high-level definitions to understand how the kernel interacts with hardware, manages resources, and executes system calls. What you'll learn: * Understand the architecture of the kernel, the role of system calls, and the boot process sequence. * Analyze how processes are created, scheduled, managed, and terminated using mechanisms like fork and exec. * Master virtual memory management, including paging, swapping, and addressing schemes used by the operating system. * Practice implementing inter-process communication (IPC) using pipes, shared memory, and signals. * Configure concurrency primitives such as threads, mutexes, and semaphores for reliable multitasking. * Explore foundational kernel features that enable modern resource isolation and containerization, such as namespaces and control groups. The course begins with foundational definitions of OS components and progresses through resource management topics like CPU scheduling, memory allocation, and file systems, concluding with advanced topics in concurrency and synchronization. This course is designed for absolute beginners in systems programming or computer science students who need a solid, technical foundation in operating system concepts. No prior knowledge of OS internals is required. Start building your expertise in computing fundamentals today.