section 1
What the hell is an Operating System ?
Not so long ago, the answer to the question: "what is an operating system ?", was not so difficult. For one thing: the question was only asked by (junior) professionals, and the answer could be expressed in professional language.
But around 1993 a then relative small company with a strategic and pivotal position, redefined the answer, and because they succeeded in selling a lot of their product, they managed to give a new definition of operating system to the market. So if you now ask the bespoke question you either get a quarrel between people disagreeing over the notion of operating system, or you get an answer that is of no value.
Basically the answers to the bespoke question can be subdivided in answers from technically oriented people and answers from marketing oriented people.
Let's start with the latter one: "An Operating System is a software product, which comes preinstalled on a computer, that enables you to run anything on this computer". I don't like this definition for several reasons:
  1. By defining it as a product, the definition is liquid. Whatever software components the vendor wants to add or remove to tailor the usability of the product to his marketing goals, would make the scope of the definition different, and therefore the meaning useless.
  2. The notion of preinstalled. Though for a majority of people, installing an Operating System is a task they readily want to outsource, the mere fact of preinstallment has nothing to do with a definition. Anything can be preinstalled on a computer; that does not make it an oparating system. And the subsequnet installation of a new operating system (same or different) is implied outside the scope of the definition.
  3. The idea that you can run anything on a computer simply is a lie. What you can or cannot run on a computer is defined by the functionality of the operating system, by its interfaces to both application software and hardware, and by its intrinsic qualities like power, reliability and so on.

To compare the marketing definition with a car, is like to say: The engine of the car, is anything the car manufacturer chooses to install in the car before delivery in order to let you drive where you want to go. Though I never want to install an engine in a car myself, I do sometimes look under the hood, and I am damn sure, what is the engine and what is not. The dashboard definitely is not the engine, even when I control all engine functions from the dashboard (with a mouse :-})
An "operating system" is a software program that controls the allocation and use of computer resources (such as central processing unit time, main memory space, disk space, and input/output channels). The operating system also supports the functions of software programs, called "applications," that perform specific user-oriented tasks. The operating system supports the functions of applications by exposing interfaces, called "application programming interfaces," or "APIs." These are synapses at which the developer of an application can connect to invoke pre-fabricated blocks of code in the operating system. These blocks of code in turn perform crucial tasks, such as displaying text on the computer screen. Because it supports applications while interacting more closely with the PC system's hardware, the operating system is said to serve as a "platform."

Operating System

Microspeak: an innovative new computer breakthrough. Real Meaning: the latest repackaged adjustment of Windows. Usage: "Microsoft is planning to release the new *operating system* later this year." Agenda: To hide the fact that Microsoft is simply repackaging the same old obsolete products.





Latest update: November 13th 2001