[geeks] Google announces Google Chrome OS

[Dave Fischer]

me at dansikorski.com writes:

>That's because Linux is just a kernel.  There are many OS's built on 
>it.  Android is one, and there are many others.  You don't say that  
>your PC runs NT 6.0.6001, or that your mac runs Darwin.

Historically, at least some people defined "operating system" as just
the kernel.

Tanenbaum's "Modern Operating Systems", for example, explicitly
says: "The operating system is the code that carries out the system
calls.  Editors, compilers, assemblers, linkers, and command
interpreteres are definitely not part of the operating system..."

I haven't been able to figure out how widespread that definition
was, or exactly when the Linux/gnu type usage became common.
(I suspect it was a result of non-technical people using GUIs
on PCs - a vague handwave towards the screen and "the operating
system makes it all work" leads to a very loose understanding
of the term...)

Calling different Linux distros "different operating systems"
annoys me to no end though. 

------ David Fischer ------- dave at cca.org ------- http://www.cca.org ------
----------------- Young-goon! The vending machine says hi! ----------------