that old GNU/Linux argument
John Burton
j.c.burton at gats-inc.com
Thu Jul 17 21:40:45 UTC 2008
Gordon Messmer wrote:
> DJ Delorie wrote:
>>
>> It's a matter of semantics. The FSF is defining "operating system" as
>> "the stuff the FSF did, plus Linux"
>
> I think they're defining "operating system" as "an implementation of
> the Portable Operating System Interface" (POSIX), which is a
> standardized definition of an "operating system" agreed upon by the
> many contributors.
>
POSIX grew out of an attempt to combine BSD and SYSV flavors of UNIX and
have a "standard" to write against. In simple terms, if you wrote code
that conformed to POSIX standard, you should be able to compile & run it
on systems that also conformed to POSIX standard. POSIX is *not* a
"definition of an operating system", it is a "definition of the
*interface to* an operating system". Major difference...
John
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