about a test at school

clerus21 · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 4:19 am Post subject: about a test at school

Hello, i wanted to know if what i answerd in a kind of test at school is correct or not and why?

in this test there was a general question about operating systems and after explaining some things about operating systems in genereal i wrote that you could have an operating system inside a floppy using a linux kernel and a shell.
i wanna know if this is right or not, couse in every manual there is out there it says that ou can have a running linux kernel inside a floppy, but i dont know if a linux kernel and a shell is considered to be an operating system..
thanxz

evader · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 4:28 am Post subject:

I'd say it's true.
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Rainmaker · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 4:28 am Post subject:

it depends on what definition you use for a operating system

At our school, we defined an operating system as "A system which provides an interface for the user towards the hardware of the computer".

A kernel and shell would be plenty for that, but a BIOS would fit that description too.
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Kensai · Guru Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 570 Location: Puerto Rico

I'd say it's true since in university we are going to install linux with a kernel booting from a floppy.
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anxt · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 4:35 am Post subject:

arguably your calculator has an os. and so does your microwave. give emacs a bootloader and it is an os, hehe.

clerus21 · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 4:38 am Post subject:

heeh yes, but what i thought is that the kernel would handle all hardware and system calls and the shell would let you interact with it..
i never tought about the bios thing...

Raistlin · l33t Joined: 17 May 2004 Posts: 691 Location: Boston, MA

Linux is the kernel, all the other "things" are additions

Cheers, R.
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