Your definition is simply not usable. By this definition, a bootloader is an OS, the BIOS is an OS, etc. All it needs is to force a little bit the interpretatio

Your definition is simply not usable. By this definition, a bootloader is an OS, the BIOS is an OS, etc. All it needs is to force a little bit the interpretation of "lets me operate the computer". Just because "it" doesn't need an OS to run, it doesn't have to be itself an OS. I think the issue is that there's no name for that kind of software which are just programs that run on bare metal. So everyone just call it an "OS" - including embedded system software vendors even though what is being sold is really just a library. But often you have no kernel, no drivers, no resource management, no filesystem, no processes... All features one would expect from an operating system. Furthermore, operating systems in the generally accepted definition are not supposed to include an interpreter or a compiler. They are not supposed to be interpreters or compilers. So that's not hair-splitting at all. Those systems are really distinct from operating systems.