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I'm not sure I agree. I could be said that "Windows", "OSX", "GNU/Linux" are not really "Operating Systems", intended as software products that you can install

by Kurtz79 13y ago

I'm not sure I agree. I could be said that "Windows", "OSX", "GNU/Linux" are not really "Operating Systems", intended as software products that you can install on a machine. Windows XP, OSX Mountain Lion, Ubuntu 13.04 and yes, Elementary, are. You don't download a specific "GNU/Linux" OS, you download an OS (intended as a software product made up of kernel+file system+desktop environment) that is based on that technology. The word "distribution" is something that was created for Linux given its specific nature. Yes, if we stick to the classic CS definition of OS maybe you are right, but I believe that Ubuntu, Debian and Elementary can rightfully call themselves "OS"s without issue.

acqq 13y ago
Windows XP, OSX Mountain Lion, Ubuntu 13.04 are all specific releases, not the new operating systems. Elementary isn't, too. It is not even a distro until it has clear release and update policies. Otherwise you'd consider any skinned ISO of any existing OS a new OS, and that's just wrong. "Hello all, I'm making one new OS in my basement every week!"
- okwa 13y ago
  From Wikipedia[1]: > a distribution is most simply described as a particular assortment of applications installed on top of a set of libraries married with a version of the kernel, such that its "out-of-the-box" capabilities meet most of the needs of its particular end-user base. It seems you're just making up random criteria that elementary OS doesn't meet so you can dismiss it for what it is: an operating system. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution