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[1] 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

  1. 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. ↩︎

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    1·
    2 days ago

    No and honestly I don’t think it matters. Set the age of your OS to 18 (assuming you are 18) and move on. What’s the issue?

    That being said if you are really interested in the topic and use this as an “excuse” to learn check out https://jsandler18.github.io/ and don’t worry if you don’t have an RPi to run it, you can use QEMU. After that you can dig into https://wiki.osdev.org/ really a fascinating journey.

  • Thwompthwomp@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 days ago

    What you’re talking about would be called running a browser on “bare metal.” The OS is typically on charge of resource management between the various tasks. Access to the processor, storage, screen, input devices, sound, network. The os is a layer that mediates these devices. On bare metal you have to do ALL of that.

    I’ve seen some interest in bare metal web servers in the past which some believe to be more secure. But I don’t think I’ve seen browsers on bare metal. There’s so much browsers need to do anymore. But anyways, bare metal would be the search terms you want to start using.

    Edit: “bare metal” seems to have a newer usage for servers, so the papers I found were calling it “Bare PC.” Example: https://doi.org/10.1109/HPCC.2009.34