Operating Systems Fundamentals Every Developer Should Know 💻

1. Your Program is Just One of Many 🔄
   bash# Check what's really running on your system
   ps aux | wc -l

   Spoiler: It's probably 200+ processes

   Your beautiful Python script isn't alone. The OS is constantly juggling hundreds of processes, giving each one a slice of CPU time. Understanding this helps you write more efficient code and debug performance issues.

2. Memory Isn't What You Think It Is 🧠
   pythonimport os
   print(f"Process ID: {os.getpid()}")

   This process thinks it owns ALL the memory

   Plot twist: It's all virtual memory

   Every process gets its own virtual address space. That malloc() or new isn't directly touching physical RAM - the OS is doing some serious magic behind the scenes.

3. File Operations Are System Calls 📁
   python# This innocent line...
   with open('data.txt', 'r') as f:
   content = f.read()

...triggers multiple system calls:

open() -> read() -> close()

Every file operation goes through the kernel. Understanding this helps you optimize I/O operations and debug file-related issues.

1. Your Network Request Takes a Journey 🌐 pythonimport requests response = requests.get('https://api.example.com') # This goes: App -> OS -> Network Stack -> Driver -> Wire That simple HTTP request travels through multiple OS layers. Knowing this helps you debug network issues and understand latency.