
High-level overview: Operating systems, H/ware, Processors – what would you add? - ColinWright
http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/OS_HW_Processor.html?HN_20170823
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ColinWright
I would love it if people could suggest things that I've left out, or
criticize the choices I've made here. I wanted something to help give a map
for explanations of what operating systems are, and how there's more than one,
and there's a relationship between OS's hardware, and processors.

The diagram I have has served its original purpose, but I have no doubt the HN
community will be aghast at some of the omissions.

Please, help me enhance this.

~~~
brudgers
I am not optimistic about the task because there is no intrinsic relationship
between an operating system and an architecture...Windows 10 runs on ARM (and
before it Windows Phone 7/8 and Windows RT) and before that Windows CE and
Windows Embedded on various architectures.

To put it another way, a diagram reflects a decision to leave out some details
and emphasize others in order to make a particular point. To be a bit early
Wittgensteinian, the world is all the facts, a diagram is a picture of the
logical structure of the world, and the problem is that the relationship
between operating systems and architectures has no logical structure. Knowing
that OSX runs on x86 is not evidence for or against it running on MIPS. I can
only use the fact in syllogism. And even then unconvincingly because OSX runs
on some x86 systems and not others.

~~~
ColinWright
I'm not entirely convinced I understand what you're saying here. The diagram
is intended just to give an overview to someone completely unversed in the
area of computing, to say that "These are operating systems, these are
'boxes', and these are the things that might be inside those boxes."

Certainly this type of diagram can't be complete, and can't be used to predict
anything about what might happen, or what currently happens in dark corners.
The fact that there is no logical structure simply makes a simplistic diagram
like this even more useful to understand the relationships between 90% of
stuff that's out there.

I was unaware of Windows 10 running on ARM based hardware - what hardware was
it?

And I'm really _not_ going to go down the rabbit hole of a gazillion versions
of Windows, CE, ME, NT, server, _etc._ For an overview that seems counter-
indicated.

And having said all that, I can only assume from the lack of feedback (apart
from yours, which is useful - thank you) that either people haven't looked,
don't care, or that I got it close enough.

~~~
brudgers
0\. Windows 10 Mobile is the "phone" version of Windows and shipped in 2015.
More recently,
[https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2017/P4171](https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2017/P4171)

1\. A diagram can display the logical structure of the world. But the
relationship between operating systems and CPU architectures has no logical
structure. A relationship between an operating system and a CPU architecture
does not imply any edges from the operating system to another CPU architecture
nor edges from the CPU architecture to an operating system.

2\. If the diagram explains what it is meant to explain to the intended
audience, then it has done its job. If it is meant to be 'canonical' then it
cannot succeed unless the audience agrees with the premises for inclusion and
exclusion.

3\. Why isn't Windows IOT [1] listed for the Rpi? Because it is not relevant
to the purpose of the diagram, while RiscOS is. Caricaturizing Windows is a
premise of the diagram at a high level. While deep details regarding MacOS
point to Motorola and IBM CPU's from decades ago. Maybe this suggests too much
detail in the diagram. Maybe it suggests a way in which the diagram could be
misleading...or incomplete...or suitable to some tasks and not others.

I suppose my reaction is partially around the implication that a post to HN is
some level of claim that the diagram is 'canonical' since it is not just a one
off. And in part my reaction is that it portrays the world in a Mac centric
way and I don't think that such portrayals make people well informed...and
admittedly this is a long standing hot button of mine.

[1]: [https://developer.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/iot](https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/iot)

