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author | June McEnroe <june@causal.agency> | 2021-02-22 18:50:03 -0500 |
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committer | June McEnroe <june@causal.agency> | 2021-02-22 18:50:03 -0500 |
commit | cf14b0aaa5157e1b946aa752afc865d0352c4efb (patch) | |
tree | 91abe9edea0b69b3f1b196ec409522168a59bd6b | |
parent | Iterate over text files to generate feed (diff) | |
download | src-cf14b0aaa5157e1b946aa752afc865d0352c4efb.tar.gz src-cf14b0aaa5157e1b946aa752afc865d0352c4efb.zip |
Publish "Operating systems"
-rw-r--r-- | www/text.causal.agency/018-operating-systems.7 | 86 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | www/text.causal.agency/Makefile | 1 |
2 files changed, 87 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/www/text.causal.agency/018-operating-systems.7 b/www/text.causal.agency/018-operating-systems.7 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..691102e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/www/text.causal.agency/018-operating-systems.7 @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ +.Dd February 22, 2021 +.Dt OPERATING-SYSTEMS 7 +.Os "Causal Agency" +. +.Sh NAME +.Nm Operating systems +.Nd criteria +. +.Sh DESCRIPTION +Sometimes in conversation +I use the term +.Dq real operating system +which people, +perhaps rightfully, +take as inflammatory. +But I have actually thought about +what I mean when I say +.Dq real operating system +and come up with +this list of criteria. +. +.Pp +An operating system should be... +.Bl -bullet +.It +Consistent and cohesive: +all parts of the system should have similar +usage, configuration, documentation and so on. +Parts of the system should naturally work together, +because they were designed to do so. +. +.It +Documented: +the system should include its own documentation. +A user should not have to +search some external wiki +to learn how the system works. +It should be obvious +where to find documentation +on a particular topic. +. +.It +Programmable: +the system should provide +a way to program the computer. +A computer which cannot be programmed +is not a computer at all. +Usually this takes the form +of a C compiler +and the tools that go with it. +In earlier times, +it might have been +a BASIC interpreter. +. +.It +Examinable and modifiable: +the full source tree +for the system should be included, +or easily obtainable +through official means. +A user should have no trouble +finding the corresponding source +for a part of the system. +Together with the previous point, +the source tree should be +compiled by the included toolchain, +allowing local modification. +.El +. +.Pp +Some things that may be parts +of real operating systems, +but are not themselves operating systems: +a kernel, +a package manager, +a collection of packages. +. +.Pp +I will leave it as an +.Dq exercise for the reader +to guess which operating systems +meet these criteria +and which don't. +. +.Sh AUTHORS +.An june Aq Mt june@causal.agency diff --git a/www/text.causal.agency/Makefile b/www/text.causal.agency/Makefile index 6063abb1..d44e3f77 100644 --- a/www/text.causal.agency/Makefile +++ b/www/text.causal.agency/Makefile @@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ TXTS += 014-using-vi.txt TXTS += 015-reusing-tags.txt TXTS += 016-using-openbsd.txt TXTS += 017-unpasswords.txt +TXTS += 018-operating-systems.txt all: ${TXTS} |