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"Bare metal" is running a program on the bare metal, without an operating system in between.
by sackerhews 5y ago
"Bare metal" is running a program on the bare metal, without an operating system in between.
- andrewstuart2 5y agoI've never heard bare metal used that way. Any time I've heard it used, it's referring to a lack of virtualization. What you're talking about is usually referred to as a unikernel.
- sackerhews 5y agoNo, what I'm talking about is usually referred to as bare metal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_machine
- orev 5y agoWhile I have seen this definition used in some very specific circumstances (like high frequency trading where they can afford to hire people to actually write a fully customized app for the hardware), this definition is so specific as to be essentially useless as it would apply to virtually nobody. Typical IT usage means something is running on an OS that’s installed on the hardware, as opposed to in a virtual machine.
- sackerhews 5y agoIt's not "used in some very specific circumstances", it's the very definition of bare metal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_machine
- axguscbklp 5y agoI have never seen "bare metal" used to mean anything other than running directly on the hardware instead of through an OS, so I guess the term simply means different things in different communities. The group of people who understand "bare metal" to mean what I mean by it is much larger than "virtually nobody".
- orev 5y agoBased on other comments here, it appears this is not as clear as I thought. I can see it being used either way, but definitely understand that in the “pre-virtual-machine” era, it could be used this way.
- Arch-TK 5y agoAh yes the "virtually" nonexistent sector of embedded development that "virtually nobody" works in.