Abstract: A system and method for customizing and/or tuning an operating system for a computer. In accordance with the inventive method, a plurality of input values are mapped to membership functions (or fuzzy sets). The input values relate to the status of the operating system, any tasks to be performed thereby, or any other parameter. A set of resource management rules are applied to generate an output corresponding to each input value in accordance with the membership function with which the input values are associated. In the illustrative embodiment, each rule is an `if-then` statement having a membership function as an antecedent and an output corresponding to the input value as a consequent. The rules are applied and the output defuzzified by an inference engine implemented in hardware or software.