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I thought it was an operating system?

• ramin_hal9001 4y ago
  Back in the 80s and 90s people did not often distinguish between app platforms and operating systems, because back then there were no widely-used portable app platforms like Java or the Web. Nowadays though, with a few popular app platforms running on numerous operating systems, there is a clear distinction between OS and app platform. Emacs is an app platform for client-side applications.
  • lispm 4y ago
    > Emacs is an app platform for client-side applications. Yes, exactly. That app platform provided a system-independent UI for text- and editor-based apps. But I would think that even in the 80s/90s there were a bunch of other examples for app platforms.
  • gpderetta 4y ago
    On the other hand these days[1] we run OSs within OSs via virtualization. And we can run apps on bare or virtualized metal without an OS. So the I think that the distinction between app platform and OS is almost non-existent. Given virtualized hardware, even OS as an hardware abstraction client is not so clear cut. I'll say it: the browser is an OS, sue me. [1] we always could of course, it was just not mainstream