Well, here's my two sense to this flamebait topic ... On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, Andrew McNabb wrote:
> Your system includes Perl, X, Apache, etc., but none of them, with the > possible exception of X if you are scared of the command line, could > possibly be considered a core component of the system. If you were to > delete Apache, Perl, or any other application, your computer might not > do what you need it to, but it would still be perfectly usable. You > could login and do things. > > On the other hand, as others have pointed out, GNU components are > fundamental components of your system. If you were to find a way to > delete all GNU programs off of your computer, you wouldn't even be able > to boot it. It would be completely useless. I think the web page that was posted (http://www.topology.org/linux/lingl.html) makes some very insightful points ... 1) "Operating System" does not mean "what is essential for a computer to operate" or "what is a core component of the system". An Operating System is the memory-resident program that acts as a go-between for the user-land programs and the CPU, RAM, input devices, etc. 2) Software such as "gcc", "ls", "lpd", "sh", etc. are programs that run in userspace, and are loaded into RAM as required. They do not continually stay in operation. 3) Simply because certain programs are "core components" of a distribution do not make those programs part of the Operating System. Simply because an Operating System cannot function without other things does not make those other things part of the Operating System. Feel free to dispute any of the above three points, but please, label clearly which you agree with and which you take issue with. Thank you, ~ Ross -- This sentence would be seven words long if it were six words shorter. ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
