Warp wrote:
>   This definition of "operating system" is not mine. It's what I was
> taught. Did they teach me wrongly? Maybe.

I think.. Bios "could be", but just having some way to get into it, so 
you can change some things, but not truly "use" any of your hardware, 
makes it "not one". Its not like there is a clear dividing line, except 
that, if you want to make one, an OS would have to have these attributes:

1. It allows user interaction on some level.
2. Ability to remain in memory and run a new application, once the 
current one terminates (bios can't do that, short of restarting the 
entire machine).
3. It sits between applications and a lower level interface.
4. Its not a script engine.

#4 is there *solely* on the basis that while DOS is an OS, something 
like DOSBOX isn't. Why? Because the later *pretends* to have access to a 
lower level interface, while *pretending* to provide all the same 
features of the OS it simulates. So, its one of the fuzzy ones. It is, 
and it isn't. Now, if you ran something that simulated the hardware, 
then you ran DOS *on top* of that simulated hardware, then it would be. 
Same with script engines. What you are dealing with is not access to the 
low level interfaces of the machine itself, but to a simulation of those 
interfaces that are needed to allow the applications to run in it.

Point being. Its gotten damn blurry. Now you can have a physical 
machine, running a simple OS, which runs an application that simulates a 
second machine, running a complex OS, which is running a sim of a much 
simpler machine, which is running a very simple OS, which is running 
DOSBOX, which simulates "both" the machine *and* the OS. In theory, you 
could then run Windows 3.1 on that, and run some ancient copy of DOSBOX 
inside that, and... Its gets damn insane. Ten years ago, people could 
have given you a clear and concise, "Yep, that is, and that isn't." 
Now... Who the hell knows in some cases. lol

-- 
void main () {

     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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