Description of the following technical reasons  for the increasingly  widespread use of networks:

• improved network related software, including
  • network operating systems

David made a great post on this last year. I thought I would summarise it for you.

Most modern operating systems have been designed to work with a network, this was not that common (outside business) before 2000. However adoption of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) by Windows and Apple OSs as the core network protocol allowed easier sharing of data.

Network OSs have all the features of a single use Operating system and include the following.

• Security
  • Users with correct password (or other authentication) are given appropriate access to resources (hardware and data).
• Network Storage
  • Central storage and sharing of files
• Communications
  • The ability to share information with other users on the network. This also covers Inter Network communications, that is sharing information with users on other networks. This sharing can be email, IM or HTTP  (Hyper Texr Transfer Protocol)
• Application Sharing
  • With appropriate licencing applications can be stored and managed centrally. That means that the application is always up-to-date
• Hardware (Printer) Sharing
  • Hardware resources are shared via the network, these can be printers, scanners, webcam, etc. Sharing these expensive helps to reduce the cost per user.
• Support Services
  • Such as Anti Virus and remote monitoring.

Think about how our classroom operates. What aspects of the NOS can you see in operation? I leave you with this thought from Dilbert