Ask HN: Did the term OS take on a new meaning? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Did the term OS take on a new meaning?

17 points_gfwu10 comments

Recently, I've noticed a bunch of startups using the term "OS" to describe their product.[0][1]

Does OS still stand for operating system or does it have a different meaning in this context? If it's the former, I'm really confused about the usage in this context because I always assumed it was a strict computer science/engineering term. Are there other examples of computer science-y terms being used in a new context?

[0]: https://www.lendis.io/en/ [1]: https://payever.co.uk/jobs/history (at the bottom)

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Marketing BS, simple as. People associate operating systems as impressive technology, widely used, and essentially a "moat".

Of course people want to sell themselves as an early Microsoft or Apple to investors. But it really is an abuse of language.

I noticed this talk re Palantir. Previously my quick take on what they're selling is that they're "duct tape" joining up data and apps from wherever. An OS inside a specific machine is also duct tape joining up drivers, apps, storage, file formats etc, so Palantir has a point, in calling their product an OS. True, it might be more accurate to say "metaOS" or "NetOS" or "distributed OS" (meaning network not necessairily internet) but I'll give it to 'em. It's an OS of a kind.

Fair enough! In this case, the OS analogy sort of makes sense.

No. This is just clueless marketing teams trying to sound high tech, when anyone who knows the slightest bit about technology can see through the BS.

Stay away from companies claiming they've built an OS unless they're actually building an OS.

It seems like a product branding buzzword by a marketing person who does not really understand what an operating system is.

Does it manage computer hardware resources and run programs? If not, the product is not an operating system.

"Lendis - the operating system for hybrid work".

You could replace 'operating system' with a better buzzwords:

"Lendis - the ecosystem for hybrid work"

"Lendis - the customer journey for hybrid work"

"Lendis - the digital transformation for hybrid work"

"Lendis - the omnichannel for hybrid work"

"Lendis - the paradigm shift for hybrid work"

Honestly none of those are better. I like 'operating system' better.

or, as they also use themselves, "platform".

I've seen semi-reasonable usages where it's clearly meant to be figurative; "an OS for X" can be read as "an all-inclusive platform for X". But the examples you posted are pretty confusing, it's not at all clear that they're figurative

Operating System has a precise technical definition, but it is sometimes used as an analogy in context.

Another example I noticed: Railway.app, a startup in the infrastructure deployment platform/management space, said in a recent job posting [1]

> Our goal is to make developers orders of magnitude more efficient by becoming the operating system for modern development.

[1] https://railway.app/careers/developer-relations

OS is operating system. Maybe someone is trying to redefine it, but I don't see how could they succeed in that.

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