What is an OS kernel How does it differ from an operating system

Question

I am not able to understand the difference between a kernel and an operating system  I do not see any difference between them  Is the kernel an operating system

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Simple Answer  The Kernel is the core piece of the operating system  It is not necessarily an operating system in and of itself   Everything else is built around it   Ellaborate Definition  Kernel  computing  - Wikipedia

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The technical definition of an operating system is  a platform that consists of specific set of libraries and infrastructure for applications to be built upon and interact with each other   A kernel is an operating system in that sense   The end-user definition is usually something around  a software package that provides a desktop  shortcuts to applications  a web browser and a media player   A kernel doesn t match that definition   So for an end-user a Linux distribution  say Ubuntu  is an Operating System while for a programmer the Linux kernel itself is a perfectly valid OS depending on what you re trying to achieve  For instance embedded systems are mostly just kernel with very small number of specialized processes running on top of them  In that case the kernel itself becomes the OS itself   I think you can draw the line at what the majority of the applications running on top of that OS do require  If most of them require only kernel  the kernel is the OS  if most of them require X Window System running  then your OS becomes X   kernel

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The kernel might be the operating system or it might be a part of the operating system  In Linux  the kernel is loaded and executed first  Then it starts up other bits of the OS  like init  to make the system useful   This is especially true in a micro-kernel environment  The kernel has minimal functionality  Everything else  like file systems and TCP IP  run as a user process

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The kernel is part of the operating system  while not being the operating system itself   Rather than going into all of what a kernel does  I will defer to the wikipedia page   http   en wikipedia org wiki Kernel  28computing 29   Great  thorough overview

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The Operating System is a generic name given to all of the elements  user interface  libraries  resources  which make up the system as a whole     The kernel is  brain  of the operating system  which controls everything from access to the hard disk to memory management  Whenever you want to do anything  it goes though the kernel

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In computing  the  kernel  is the central component of most computer operating systems  it is a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level  The kernel s responsibilities include managing the system s resources  the communication between hardware and software components   Usually as a basic component of an operating system  a kernel can provide the lowest-level abstraction layer for the resources  especially processors and I O devices  that application software must control to perform its function  It typically makes these facilities available to application processes through inter-process communication mechanisms and system calls

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Well  there is a difference between kernel and OS  Kernel as described above is the heart of OS which manages the core features of an OS while if some useful applications and utilities are added over the kernel  then the complete package becomes an OS  So  it can easily be said that an operating system consists of a kernel space and a user space   So  we can say that Linux is a kernel as it does not include applications like file-system utilities  windowing systems and graphical desktops  system administrator commands  text editors  compilers etc  So  various companies add these kind of applications over linux kernel and provide their operating system like ubuntu  suse  centOS  redHat etc

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a kernel is part of the operating system  it is the first thing that the boot loader loads onto the cpu  for most operating systems   it is the part that interfaces with the hardware  and it also manages what programs can do what with the hardware  it is really the central part of the os  it is made up of drivers  a driver is a program that interfaces with a particular piece of hardware  for example  if I made a digital camera for computers  I would need to make a driver for it  the drivers are the only programs that can control the input and output of the computer

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Kernel resides in OS Actually it is a memory space specially provided for handling the os functions Some even say OS handles Resources of system and Kernel is one which is heart of os and maintain manage i e keep track of os

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It seems that the original metaphor that got us the word  kernel  for this in the first place has been forgotten   The metaphor is that an operating system is a seed   The  kernel  of the seed is the core of the operating system  providing operating system services to applications programs  which is surrounded by the  shell  of the seed that is what users see from the outside   Some people want to tie  kernel   and  indeed   shell   down to be more specific than that   But in truth there s a lot of variation across operating systems   Not the least these variations is what constitutes a  shell   which can range from Solaris  sh through Netware s Console Command Interpreter to OS 2 s Workplace Shell and Windows NT s Explorer   but there s also a lot of variance from one operating system to another in what is  and isn t  a part of a  kernel   which may or may not include disk I O  for example      It s best to remember that these terms are metaphors   Further reading   https   superuser com a 329479 38062

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A kernel is the part of the operating system that mediates access to system resources   It s responsible for enabling multiple applications to effectively share the hardware by controlling access to CPU  memory  disk I O  and networking   An operating system is the kernel plus applications that enable users to get something done  i e compiler  text editor  window manager  etc

[kernel] What is an OS kernel ? How does it differ from an operating system?

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