🚀 go-pugleaf

In comp.unix.questions Jeffrey Siegal <jbs@quiotix.com> wrote:
: Steve Mading wrote:
:> In comp.unix.questions Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net> <ruhl@4dv.net> wrote:
:> : Jeffrey Siegal <jbs@quiotix.com> writes:
:> :> 
:> :> Actually, Linux is a kernel, not an OS.
:> 
:> : A kernel _is_ an OS.  The OS + userland utilities might accurately be
:> : called an operating environment, but as every CS student knows, an
:> : operating system is not the behemoth of applications and utilities put
:> : out by every OS vendor, but rather the relatively small bit which
:> : manages limited resources and interfaces with the hardware.
:> 
:> What would you call these processes:
:> 
:> root         1     0  0 Jun04 ?        00:00:04 init [5]
:> root         2     1  0 Jun04 ?        00:00:00 [keventd]
:> root         3     1  0 Jun04 ?        00:00:00 [kapm-idled]
:> root         4     1  0 Jun04 ?        00:00:05 [kswapd]
:> root         5     1  0 Jun04 ?        00:00:00 [kreclaimd]
:> root         6     1  0 Jun04 ?        00:00:00 [bdflush]
:> root         7     1  0 Jun04 ?        00:00:00 [kupdated]
:> root         8     1  0 Jun04 ?        00:00:00 [mdrecoveryd]
:> 
:> They are processes, but are very much a low-level part of the OS,
:> and are strongly tied to changes to the kernel, without BEING the
:> kernel.  Take them away and you won't be able to run any sort of
:> userland process properly, so yes they ARE part of the OS.

: Actually, except init, those are all part of the kernel.

Without init, you still don't have an OS yet.  Without init launching
at least *something*, there is no getty, no xdm, nothing.  Without it,
there is still no mechanism whatsoever for getting a user-level
program to start, and even the most conservative definition of an
OS includes that the OS exists for the purpose of presenting a
platform on top of which you can stack a user program.