The primary purpose of an operating system is: To provide a software interface between the hardware and the application programs. To provide additional products for hardware manufacturers to sell. To give the user less versatility in using the computer. To maximize the productivity of the computer system user. To maximize the productivity of a computer system by operating it in the most efficient manner.

To provide a software interface between the hardware and the application programs.

Explanation:

An operating system is a system software that is responsible to manage the hardware and software on our computer. Operating system play the role as a coordinator to handle how different software interact or communicate with hardware and produce a desired output to user. Operating system will also manage computer resources such as central processing unit (cpu), memory and storage required by software to perform its task. The common operating system exist in the today market includes Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.