What are the differences between threads and processes in an operating system?

Processes and threads are two different ways of organizing program execution in an operating system.

• Process is an independent execution unit with its own address space, resources (files, memory), and state. Each process is isolated from others, ensuring security and stability.

• Thread (thread) is a lightweight process that exists within a process and shares memory and resources with other threads of the same process. Threads allow multiple tasks to be executed in parallel within a single process.

Main differences:

• Processes are isolated, threads share memory.
• Creating and switching between threads is faster than between processes.
• Threads are convenient for parallel computations within a single program.

For example, in Python, the multiprocessing module creates processes, while threading creates threads.