The way I like to think of it is that a "systems langauge" is something you could use to implement a "real"[0] GC. Does this ring true to anyone else?
[0] You know what I mean.
[0] You know what I mean.
A GC is just a special case of a memory manager.
systems language => for building systems, many parts, many interconnections
operating system language => ability to use the hardware with no limitation. even for a monolithic part.
So... every language?