On Monday, 08/28/2006 at 06:45 ZE2, Lindy Mayfield 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Is there a general consensus about what pieces or aspects of the 
software 
> shipped with z/OS would be defined as the "operating system"?

It depends on your definition of of "operating system".  The classical 
definition is the chunk of software that manages the real system 
resources, allocating them to application programs.  That is, the 
gatekeeper for access to the CPU, memory, and I/O devices.  That would be, 
again classically, just BCP: the thing that holds the SVCs.

Of course, as computing has gotten more sophisticated (has it?) the 
definition has become far more complex.  Is JES *really* part of the 
operating system?  Or is it just an application with the same privileges 
as the operating system itself?  Hmmmm....  What about apps that run 
authorized only for performance reasons?  Are they part of the OS?  There 
must be a PhD dissertation on this *somewhere* out there....   ;-)

Alan Altmark
z/VM Development
IBM Endicott

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