Wheee!
> - Can you install Windows XP without a GUI? So is the GUI part of the
> Operating System?
yep
> - If you have Linux running on an embedded device, and it just happens not
> to need or use in GNU tools, is that a different Operating System from the
> one that comes with Debian or Red Hat?
yep
> - Is Windows 3.1 an Operating System?
nope
> - ... is "command.com"?
yep
> - ... is Darwin?
I'm not sure, isn't Darwin the OS component of the MacOS? (i.e., the
base OS without the gui component) If so, then yep.
> [...]
> [ are GNU/Linux and a hypothetical BSD/Linux different "OS"es? ]
yep
Now, why would I consider a GNU/Linux and a BSD/Linux different OSes?
Quite simple, let's say I have an application built on the BSD/Linux
box. Will it run on the GNU/Linux box? Maybe, but probably not (at
least, not without some emulation layer) because the shared libraries
(a system component) are different. You're arguing that those
libraries are not part of the "Operating System", while I'm arguing
that they are.
And yes, I'm aware that you can take Linux binaries and run them on a
FreeBSD system. You can do this because FreeBSD provides a linux
emulation layer (that intercepts the Linux system calls, those guys
described in section two of the manual) AND you can install the Linux
(actually, GNU) shared libraries on the FreeBSD system.
-jan-
--
Jan L. Peterson
Peterson Technologies
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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