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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Run browser and/or mpv directly on hardware? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 day ago by emotional_soup_88@programming.dev to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzRf8B-oDk

Would it be possible to run mpv and a browser directly on hardware somehow? Perhaps in an environment that doesn't classify as an operating system according to the definition in those California codes?

I know that an operating system distributes workloads and facilitates communication between various hardware components, but would it be possible to build a Linux kernel that is "only" an interface to the CPU, a GPU, a sound card and a keyboard? One that can take commands to run for instance a browser^[Nowadays, a browser feels like a container that can run most things a physical computer would: stream media, serve as a word processor, play simple games, what have you.] and mpv? Having the user manually - through commands of physical switches - handle the inter component communication? Or perhaps by being a kernel it already falls under the definition of an OS?

I'm just spitballing here. Barely know what I'm talking about, so please enlighten me! :D

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[–] Oinks@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Oh no I wasn't talking about your tone at all, sorry about my poor phrasing there. I meant the tone of Timothy Roscoe which rubbed me the wrong way.

I might be a bit overly sensitive since it reminded me of how science cranks like to talk about their "discoveries" - You know, how people like Avi Loeb or Eric Weinstein will go on Joe Rogan and complain how nobody in academia is taking them seriously. Obviously that's not at all what Roscoe is doing (and not just because he's right) but it sounded a tiny bit like that to my ears, at least before the Q&A section (which I hadn't watched before writing my comment).

I was mostly just trying to convince myself this morning I wasn't insane. I had thought it was the standard terminology.

No you are actually correct, "bare metal" does in fact mean "without an OS". It just got co-opted to mean... other things additionally, and in the case of servers specifically the new usage ended up crowding out the original one. Hence the original misunderstanding.