The question on the OS got me thinking.

How did OS worked on “intermediate device”. by that I mean stuff that are too advanced to be just a few logical gates and EPROM, but before the time where most electronic devices are a computer running Linux

Stuff like phone from the 00’s before android, digital camera, washing machine and other devices which were already quite advanced (Some could already run java) but not at the point to be “just an embedded computer running some hardware” Did they already had an OS ? Was it a minimalist home-made one bought to a third party ? Or was it still mostly working by counting bytes and drawing truth table ?

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    7 months ago

    In certain cases, are you confusing operating system with firmware?

    Especially back in the day before “smart” washing machines, they would run a specific firmware rather than a more general OS

    The firmware will have all the logic and functionality for the given device but isn’t designed to be extended or have additional software added to it, like an OS would.

    There are then much smaller OSs which run on more modern devices where software extensibility and more complex tasks are desired.