Hi there.
Operating system?
Ok, the thing that seperates operating system design with all other software design is that in designing an os you start with next to nothing software wise, as opposed with application programing which has an os to work with, so you have to create a program that will allow other software to function and use the system resources, so in essence you do the "dirty" work so that application designers don't have to reinvent the wheel when dealing with the i/o the os takes care of that.
Parts of the os...
There is the BIOS, what allows the cpu to start up self test suppoer the os and load the said os.
then there is the os itself, with i/o management and support.
then there are the drivers that allow different interfaces from different manufacturers to be used in a common standard way.
then there is support software like "Format", "notepad" that allow the user to do some preparations and customisations of the operating system, and then there are applications, and we all know what they do.
Mobile Phones.
They have a microcontroler, a somewhat symplified microprocessor and it is programmed, os or not is more of a semantics question than anything else, all the software is in one chunk, and it is both "os" and application so it is integrated into the controler's non volatile memory, also Blackberry type phones have a few more features and can run other software but the whole phone software could be defined as the os, and the other saftware you D/L, the applications.
Where does ASM stand now.
ASM is a programming language, and it has good sides and bad sides, one of the bad sides is that you need to invest a lot of resources to get some dividends out of it, people are lazy and usually take the fast easy path, often missing out on the nice scenery, the relaxation or challenge and the pleasure of a slower less hectic path, on the good side the resulting code is VERY compact and VERY, VERY fast, and is not bound to the limitations of other languages, viruses behave as they will because they aren't bound to the rules that other programs are FORCED to follow, most were programmed in ASM, ASM is mostly for professionnal programers not casual weekend programers that only program tiny programs of dubious usefullness, but a programer that has pride in his craft and knows his computer inside out and doesn't compromise the quality of his work just to make an arbitrary often unrealistic deadline, which are rare these days looking at all the bugs in all the software these days.
Never used unix or linux, why? one word; compatibility.
Unix and his big brother xenix are now unfortunately almost obsolete by non use, linux is an open system which can be changed by anyone, and as such will always be a "work in progress" and i was told, programmed in asm at least in the begining, but will not run win apps and has comparatively, but a few apps that are designed to work under, and they are usually more expensive, because of the extra developpement time, limited market and lack of competition, the day linux runs win apps, win will perish soon after.
JohnDowe.
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