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[LUG] What IS an operating system ?

 

What IS an operating system ?

According to my (old) dictionary of IT (circa 1984)

operating system

In computing, a software programming package that controls the operation
of user programs. Operating Systems may typically perform the
supervision of input output operations, allocation of storage,
sequencing of user programs etc..

OK simplistic admittedly ...

but basically this is what the linux kernel does :-

resource management (memory / hardware)
job / task scheduling 
library management etc....

But we do need to 

Add file systems management

Ext2/3
Reiserfs
UFS
DOS/FAT/NTFS......
(insert favourite supported file system format here)

Then you need utilities (Ahh GNU)

ls
more
ping ?
less
df
dd
find
awk
gcc (very important)


then more sophisticated utilities that could arguably be applications :-

emacs (GNU first offering i think)
vi

then onto GUI's

GNOME (GNU i think)
KDE   (definitely not GNU)

then other "production" apps

Apache (not GNU)
Mysql  (not GNU)
OpenOffice (not GNU)

So which one of these is NOT part of your operating system ? For me none
of them (that is I use and need them all equally although I have a
preference to GNOME over KDE but thats my own preference ).

So my point ......

The second I use any GNU tool / app / code (some) people say I should
call it GNU/Linux and to a point I can accept that.

However.....

If I use Apache or MySQL or OpenOffice I don't hear anyone from the
Apache team or the MySQL team or the OpenOffice team suggesting that I
should call my operating system Apache/Linux or MySQL/Linux or
OpenOffice/Linux.

So come on lets be reasonable about these things. I don't want to end up
having to explain to someone why they should call the operating system
they use Apache/MySql/OpenOffice/Linux...... Life's just too short ;-)

Therefore......

If someone calls it linux good...
If someone calls it gnu/linux great ....

However ... if someone is over critical of someone else because they
don't call it what they think it should be called (and we get to the
point of a "school playground spat" .... well lets just say its not what
I would call community spirit :-( .

By all means put forward your reasons for preferring one definition over
another (GNU and linux is after all about freedom) but lets not get
personal.

In Conclusion ....

1.
I think we should all appreciate the great work of the GNU team. 

2.
I don't think anyone should be forced to call it GNU/Linux if they don't
want to. (that works the other way around too).

3.
At the end of the day we are all using the same software and we all
think it great stuff right ?

4. I will not be offended by anyone who refers to this group as DCLUG,
DCGLUG or any other derivative they feel comfortable with. Im from
(D)evon you maybe from (C)ornwall we are all (G)NU and (L)inux (U)sers
and we form a (G)roup.

Tom.


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