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I have been using the term platform and operating system to mean the same until now. For example: Windows and MAC are two platforms or operating systems. When it comes to different versions of windows for example: Windows XP and Windows 7.

Should I say they are two different operating systems or platforms or different versions of same platform?

3 Answers 3

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I would say Windows in a operating system while a Mac is a platform.

An OS is pure software while a platform is the combination between the OS and the kind of hardware, especially the CPU, it runs on.

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  • Agreed. Even Wikipedia agrees, and Wikipedia is "the law".
    – Ian Atkin
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:10
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    Do you mean platform = OS + Architecture If I have different OS or architecture that would mean I have a different platform? Dec 4, 2012 at 9:37
  • Indeed, a platform encompass its underlying OS.
    – jlliagre
    Dec 4, 2012 at 10:37
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It just depends on what context you are talking:

If you say the Windows platform to a bunch of developers, you could mean the Windows development platform (vs. the OSX platform or the Linux platform), if you said Windows OS instead, that could also mean just as many things.

If you were talking to hardware people and said the Windows platform, they might 'assume' you meant the x86 architecture (since Windows is deployed on more x86/64 platforms than other types), but would probably ask what you meant, but if you mentiond the 'old Mac platform' to a bunch of hardware people you might spark talks about the PPC (PowerPC) processor.

The specific word 'platform' is used interchanably to mean a lot of differnet things within the context of the CS/IT world (unfortunly this is the case with many many other IT/CS lexicon), again it really depends on the context of what you're saying.

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While an “operating system” is often described as an abstraction between applications and hardware. e.g., It provides drivers to abstract hardware, it provides a compiler to abstract CPU architecture, it provides a windowing system to abstract the number of displays/keyboards, etc. This ignores the word system.

Operating System

System: a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole.

An Operating System, provides a set of interconnected tools:

  • File-system: directories, symbolic-links, mount-points, named-pipes, etc
  • Interprocess communication: pipes; stdin/stdout/stderr, sockets, etc
  • Process management: Processes, threads, etc
  • Network access:
  • Human interface: keyboard, mouse, Windowing-system, etc.
  • Shell: a command language, and tools
  • A set of operating principles: In Unix stdin, stdout, and stderr are just the numbers 0, 1, and 2 (in code), but convention makes them much more.

The word system means that these components work together to make the whole more than the sum of the parts.

Operating Platform

A Platform is a thing that holds something else up. Like a foundation. It may also provide services: supply water and electricity.

Many computing platforms provide many of the services of an operating system, but without the set of operating principles.

Conclution

The words are often used interchangeably.

The culture matters: if there are no operating principles, then it is not a system.

Therefore, Unix (UNIX, BSD, Gnu/Linux) is an operating system, Microsoft's Windows is a platform.

Operating System = Platform + tools + operating principles

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