TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is claiming Google's Chrome OS will debut next week - but his story does have an odd ring to it. He goes on and on about how driver support will be shoddy, but that makes no sense - isn't Chome OS supposed to be built on Linux? The only way I can see initial driver support to be shoddy is when Chrome OS has its own, custom graphical layer, instead of using X. However, were that to be the case, I'm sure Google would at least support some NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel chipsets. In any case, it's a rumour - do with it as you please.
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Member since:2005-07-22
But you are confusing the kernel with the whole set. You assume the kernel only is all that's needed to launch applications, manage windows, etc. The kernel doesn't do that. ChromeOS IS an operating system. Like Debian, like Red Hat, like Ubuntu, etc. It doesn't matter what kernel it uses or what user-space applications and services, desktop environment or window manager it provides. And by shell I meant any user interface, text or GUI, that allows a user to communicate with the device or whatever thing the kernel manages.
Member since:2005-06-29
Again, look at the Syllabus of an Operating Systems course (geared toward a CS major), or a textbook on Operating Systems.
Here are links to three of the most commonly used textbooks (these links allow viewing the Table of Contents):
http://www.amazon.com/Operating-System-Concepts-Abraham-Silberschat...
http://www.amazon.com/Operating-Systems-Internals-Design-Principles...
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Operating-Systems-Andrew-Tanenbaum/dp/...
None of them include discussions of windowing, shells, and any and all other libraries, frameworks, and applications that are often provided by vendors to increase the utility of an operating system. These are not part of the Operating System itself, however.
Member since:2009-08-26
Member since:2006-02-15
Linux is a kernel.
ChromeOS is an OS.
I personally see them both as OSes. When the Linux kernel is used as-is as the only software layer and the application runs directly on top of it then it is an OS. When Linux kernel is used as a foundation for a much larger standardized software, API and ABI selection then it is not an OS as of itself but rather only a part of one.
Feel free to disagree, but for the sake of any discussion it'd be nice to explain why you disagree and not just say you do.
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Member since:
2005-06-29
"ChromeOS" is the marketing name/trademark. Linux, which consists of a kernel, an API/ABI, a DDI (Device Driver Interface), and a bootstrapping mechanism.
Shells, if any, are simply applications that execute on the OS. Many operating systems run quite nicely without a shell being one of the available applications (e.g. embedded operating systems).