3 ms·

I'd say the job of an operating system is to host applications, provide interfaces for communication and I/O, and provide access to the hardware. Sound familiar

• nineteen999 2y ago
  My desktop applications don't generally break when my network connection does, unlike web applications. From Wikipedia: "An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common services for computer programs." In the case of the web browser, half the application runs on someone else's computer usually far away from the user, and the other half runs in the browser. The web browser doesn't manage computer hardware and software resources. It doesn't "provide access to the hardware". It can provide access to API's that can leverage the operating systems real hardware interfaces. Like other desktop applications, it only has access to the API's the operating system provides. These are not hardware interfaces, but software interfaces provided by libraries, the real operating system kernel etc. It's like trying to say a set square is a spirit level just because you can check straight lines with both. Only one of them can tell you if something is level or not.
  • lomase 2y ago
    An OS is software that manages computer resources. A webapp uses multiple computing resources. But the software that gives resoruces to a webapp is not at all like an OS to you.