Desktop systems
The desktop / workstation environment plays host to many information systems, as well as general-purpose desktop applications, such as word processors. A common characteristic of modern desktop environments is that the user interacts with the application through a high-resolution graphics screen, plus a keyboard and a mouse (Figure 1.3).
In addition to this sophisticated user interface, the key distinguishing characteristics of the desktop system is the associated operating system, which may range from DOS through to a version of Windows or the UNIX operating system.
As we will see, the developer of embedded applications rarely has an operating sys- tem, screen, keyboard or mouse available.
