Re: No Microsoft Breakup

["Leif Svalgaard" <leif@xxxxxxxx>]

From: Jim Damato <jdamato@dollargeneral.com>
> > > > I disagree, there are a lot of people who know quite well what is an
> > > > operating system.
> > OS/400 includes an operating system.
>
> OK.  We run a third-party file system for our Unix servers.  We bought
> TCP/IP services for VMS.  Our HP server has a spool management package.
>
> Are the AS/400's TCP/IP services, spool management, and integrated file
> system part of the operating system?

yes they are if one subscribes to the idea that "everything" that comes
with the machine" is part of the operating system. Historically it has been
so. As far as I remember the words "operating system" came into vogue
in the early 60's, mainly through IBM's use of it in OS/360, which DID
include everything: scheduler, compilers, linkers, etc, etc.
There has always been a minority that claimed that the "true" OS was only
the lowest layers, the kernel, the "master control program", the "monitor",
etc. With the advent of the RC4000 system and later of IBM's VM you
could have a situation (described so by people at the time) where the
machine was running several operating systems at the same time.
(The AS/400 hypervisor is nothing knew - almost nothing is).
I would take a more pragmatic approach where from the view point
of my applications everything external to them that are required for
them to run be termed as part of "the operating system", but I would
also recognize that the term OS by that is watered down to the point
where it is pointless to throw more heat than light on this, thereby making
it pure fun to watch the lawyers and the legal system trash around this
issue.