What is the purpose of an operating system?

The purpose of an operating system is to act as an intermediary between the computer hardware and the user. It manages the computer's resources, such as memory, processing power, and storage, and provides a platform for running applications and executing tasks. The operating system also facilitates communication between hardware components and allows users to interact with the computer through a graphical user interface or command line interface. Additionally, the operating system ensures that different software programs can run simultaneously without interfering with each other.