Difference Between Operating Systems And Kernel Explained

The Operating System is a collection of many small programs, collectively it is known as Package.
While kernel is just a part of the Operating System. However kernel is the most important and basic part of an OS and can be considered as the skeleton of OS.
Architecture of Kernel - Wikipedia

                 
An OS is a collection of small programs like....
1. Program  to Read and Write  files in memory.
2. Program to Rename a file.
3. Program to create or delete a file or folder.
4. Program to show an icon.
5. Program for some application like calendar and clock
6. Different programs for animation and effects in a GUI based OS etc.


If you are running a GUI (Graphics User Interface) based OS,  then programs written for the graphics are seprate. Program for clock-like application is separate and  programs for basic functionality of OS are seprate.
All these programs are combined to make a complete Package called OS.

In GUI based Operating Systems like Windows, all the Colours, animations, and aero effects are added for our ease of access. However an OS can perform all It's work properly without these things.

An OS without these things and only with it's core part is known as kernel.

So, Kernel is only a written code or program for base functionality of an OS, without any GUI or any other programs.

Kernel includes all more basic programs of OS. Kernel is the lowest level of the Operating System and it is responsible for translating the command into something that can be understood by the computer.

All the work of an OS such as..
Memory management
Resource allocation
Storage management
Are performed by the Kernal of an OS at base level.


Have you ever heard of LINUX??
Linux is not an Operation System but it is a kernel itself. Linux is a written code only.
Many organizations have modified this Linux kernel to make a complete OS.
For example all the Operating Systems like Ubuntu, Mint, RedHet, Backtrack etc are the modified Linux kernel.
That's all about kernel.


For more information about the working of kernel, go through your textbooks

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