Operating Systems

Sorry this took so long.
This week's post is going to be directed towards Operating Systems, as you already knew. Most computer users know what this is... Windows' (Vista, XP), Apple's (OSX), The People's (Linux), and Corporations' and Universities' (Unix)... to name a few of the well-known. Many users, even the Geek Squad and alike, fail to realize what an operating system is. Not that i'm judging them, because i'm really ignorant on many things, but it is really important that we understand what we are to expect from our operating systems.

"Why?" you ask.

Well, because there are so much advertising for your dollar these days. You get Microsoft's lie that everyone likes them and Apple's funny old man cool man ads. How are you supposed to know which is the better buy?

Well, let me try to sort things out for you.

Basically, we're going to need to remove any preconceived idea of what you think an operating system is. Basically, your mind is marketed to look for shiny things. Yeah, shiny things are good, but only if everything underneath it works.

So, remove your ideas.

An operating system, in it's most distilled form, is software programed to control hardware.
Hardware= processors, hard drives, memory, keyboards, graphics cards, network cards ... engines, radios, mircrowaves.... and so on. Yes, you have computers with an operating system in your car.

This the basic of an operating system. This, however won't do for most personal computer users. Most of us want to perform more computation than just running hardware. We want to type papers, browse the internet, play video games, do our taxes and so on. For this, operating systems have been programed to accept other software. This is an important step, because now that we have alien software, they can do some damage. Not because the aliens are bad, but because they don't know the customs. So, a good operating system has an abstraction layer that protects software from accessing the wrong hardware. This adds a few roles to the operating system, it must provide system calls for programs, maintain user accounts, and provide for hardware drivers...

I'm going to stop here... only because i'm boring myself. Hopefully you are getting my point though. Most marketing today for operating systems are ignoring the actual purpose of the operating system... this is the main explanation to why windows vista (and windows 7) has failed. They were trying to make things look to pretty and add rediculous amounts of crappy software to their operating system.
A good operating system is lean, small, and is able to adapt to whatever software you want to put on it. Yeah, you might like your desktop reminder that you recieved mail, but it shouldn't be standard on the os installation. This is a bad operating system... windows vista (and windows 7) is a bad operating system. They have made too much crap, as well as forgot that their operating system needs to be useful (Cough driver problems cough).

So, which OS am i supporting? Linux of course! cause it's open sourced... but, i have to admit, it's not fully functional. I'm hoping to help in that area, but you can't beat that nearly every program is programmed for windows xp. OSX is ok, but again, they program to much crap into it... i think. I don't need a standard application for my web cam... i don't have a web cam... i don't want one.

Unfortunately we're hitting a point in time where there's a bunch of cool stuff coming out, but no operating system is going to be good enough for it. We're going be in a little operating system black hole for a few years, but don't fret... java is heading in the right direction.

Java is a programming language who's goal is to make the programs be able to run on any platform.

A quick look at this is the program used to upload videos to google. It is programed in java and perfectly runs on linux, mac, and windows. Well done.

This is not practical for everything, but again, a step in the right direction.

Any Questions?


Hopefully over the next few months i will be putting together a really sweet computer. I hope to make a computer that is:
1. designed for gaming- this means fairly highend
2. inexpensive- under $700
3. maintains a low cost of ownership- very low energy footprint
4. using experimental technologies- you'll find out.

I will also post all my tweaks in case you'd like to do the same.