Dear online tutorials,

Bootloader != Operating system

Regards,

Lxmcf

Okay, what the f***k?

Who cannot differentiate that?

Im amazed.

Got a question: Bootloaders are usually part of the Motherboard or BIOS right? And they need to be flashed in order to update or change them?

@hotfrost

No.

Bootloader is booted by BIOS, but it is pre-OS.

Simply I will say you in example and it should be clear.

GRUB (GNU gRand Unified Bootloader).

See? you have it even in name.

@DubbaThony right, knew it was pre-os. But I've never encountered any further information about it. Thanks for clearing things up!

@hotfrost

no problem.

And welcome to DevRant ;)

@hotfrost Welcome, get an avatar my friend.

Well I respectfully disagree.

The formal definition of an OS is to be a layer between the hardware and applications for the user to interact with. Many bootloaders (such as GRUB) do actually have this functionality. Mostly in menus and recovery tools.

The Linux kernel has also a small bootloader build in. Meaning you can make a small bootloader program that uses the Linux kernel.

on the most technical definition of a OS/bootloader there isn’t much difference. That said, a silly regular user of both this software wouldn’t recognise both the terminology of bootloader or operating system.

@Jifuna done ;)

@valvy

Well you gone one whole level deeper and IMHO found some loopholes in definitions.

Techically sure, techically grub is microscopic OS to perform user interactions, but widely accepted is, that grub is bootloader, not OS.

Same you could say thay UEFI/legacy bios is OS becouse it interfaces with hardware and software, allowing user to change settings.

That beeing said, its just loophole in given definition. These things happen.

@DubbaThony
It’s not a loophole, the original post told that bootloader is not an operating system is just not true. These things did continue to be developed and have many facets of modern day operating systems. I am unsure which tutorials he is revering to but telling that a bootloader is like an operating system might be a good comparison.