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

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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).