• kusivittula@sopuli.xyz
    251·
    3 days ago

    i doubt the average user even understands what an operating system means and they’ll just go with thatever it came with

    • BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 days ago

      Can confirm, I am a windows user and if my laptop came with Linux preinstalled, the way it had windows preinstalled, I’d be a Linux user.

      If I ever have to Google what the hell a kernel is then I have read everything else available on the internet.

    • lad
      4·
      3 days ago

      To be fair, I’m using Linux, MacOS with Darwin Nix for managing it, Windows, and I still am not sure what exactly is an operating system, what’s the role of kernel and all of the possible system software is. Well, I think kernel is for hardware abstraction, but other than that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • Lightfire228@pawb.social
        6·
        3 days ago

        The kernel does stuff like

        • process and CPU task management
        • hardware abstraction
        • memory management (at the process level),
        • file system managment
        • and resource isolation (such as randomized memory addresses (ASLR))

        The rest of the OS provides the actual software that users interact with, like

        • file managers
        • desktop rendering and window management
        • settings menus
        • sound mixing between applications
        • graphics rendering