> Most current usage of the term "operating system" today, by both popular and professional sources, refers to all the software that is required in order for the user to manage the system and to run third-party application software for that system.
Note it says "most current usage". That is because the usage was changing at that time, or had only recently changed. (I picked 2006 because I remember it changing around then.) If we go back another 2 years:
> In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations ...
Sure sounds like that doesn't include userland. Definitions which include userland are marked as "colloquial".
Famously in the 1990s, Microsoft tried to argue in court that an OS included a web browser, and that discussion is cited in these old articles... Many reasonable people at the time thought that position was bullshit.
> I definitely heard it used to literally mean only the kernel. Circa 20 years ago and earlier.
You may have, but it was a nonstandard usage. Even your 2004 Wikipedia article distinguishes between OS and kernel. Userland is certainly part of it.
AmigaDOS, 1991, manual p22: "Each AmigaDOS process represents a particular process of the operating system— for example, the filing system [...] AmigaDOS provides a process that you can use, called a Command Line Interface or Shell. (https://archive.org/details/1991-baker-jesup-et-al-the-amiga...)
> I definitely heard it used to literally mean only the kernel. Circa 20 years ago and earlier.
You're correct that people have been conflating the kernel and the operating system as the same thing for a long time, but it's not technically correct to call "Linux", for example, an operating system. Stallman would appreciate that people stop doing that ;)
I definitely heard it used to literally mean only the kernel. Circa 20 years ago and earlier.
For example, if we look at "Operating system" on Wikipedia from 2006:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operating_system&...
> Most current usage of the term "operating system" today, by both popular and professional sources, refers to all the software that is required in order for the user to manage the system and to run third-party application software for that system.
Note it says "most current usage". That is because the usage was changing at that time, or had only recently changed. (I picked 2006 because I remember it changing around then.) If we go back another 2 years:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operating_system&...
> In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations ...
Sure sounds like that doesn't include userland. Definitions which include userland are marked as "colloquial".
Famously in the 1990s, Microsoft tried to argue in court that an OS included a web browser, and that discussion is cited in these old articles... Many reasonable people at the time thought that position was bullshit.