What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System
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https://mangolassi.it/topic/1472/what-is-an-operating-system/
Operating systems and hypervisors are often confused conceptually. But they are different things and should not be seen as one and the same. There is, of course, some degree of overlap between the two, as there are with many things.
In the modern computing era, we are so used to ubiquitous operating systems that we often forget that it was common, not so long ago, for systems to run without operating systems and only to run a single application. Until recently this remained common for video game platforms - all code (beyond the BIOS or equivalent) was loaded via cartridge or optical disc and the system had to boot to the code located there. In Nintendo terms, as late as the GameCube this was the case or for Sony as late as the PS2. It was not until the Wii and the PS3 that the system would boot to an operating system and games or utilities could be run from on top of it.
An operating system is an application platform. An underlying layer that runs on a computer (including a computer appearance) that manages system resources so that applications can run on top of it. Applications being a general term for anything that can run on a computer. An application can be a game, shell, utility, web server, email client, even a hypervisor. An operating system adds critical functionality to a base computer. From an interface perspective: *an OS consumes a computer appearance and presents an application interface.
A hypervisor is not an operating system but is a much thinner, lighter layer that simply presents a computer appearance in software so that other things will see a virtual computer. A hypervisor can sometimes be installed directly on a computer appearance (type 1 or bare metal hv) or it can be run as an application (type 2 hv.) Hypervisors are different than operating systems in that they simply present "yet another computer" and do not add functionality to the base computer short of splitting it into more functional computers. From an interface perspective: *a hypervisor consumes either a computer appearance or an application interface and presents a computer appearance.
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What would you call Xbox One system, a hypervisor or OS?
http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-architecture-explained-runs-windows-8-virtually-indistinguishable/ -
@black3dynamite said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
What would you call Xbox One system, a hypervisor or OS?
http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-architecture-explained-runs-windows-8-virtually-indistinguishable/If the article is accurate it would have to be a hypervisor. With a dom0 running an anorexic windows 8.
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@black3dynamite said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
What would you call Xbox One system, a hypervisor or OS?
http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-architecture-explained-runs-windows-8-virtually-indistinguishable/It's an OS.
It also happens to have a Type 2 hypervisor on it to run old Xbox games on it.
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I prefer a data visor
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@Dashrender said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
@black3dynamite said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
What would you call Xbox One system, a hypervisor or OS?
http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-architecture-explained-runs-windows-8-virtually-indistinguishable/It's an OS.
It also happens to have a Type 2 hypervisor on it to run old Xbox games on it.
Doesn't sound that way. They explicitly say that it isn't by saying it "doesn't run applications." Only thing it does is virtualize Windows 8. So it has to be a hypervisor, doesn't resemble an OS which is "a thing that runs applications."
Now the description might be wrong, but it does that it hosts Windows, which makes it a hypervisor as well. It doesn't say that it hosts a hypervisor.
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@DustinB3403 said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
@black3dynamite said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
What would you call Xbox One system, a hypervisor or OS?
http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-architecture-explained-runs-windows-8-virtually-indistinguishable/If the article is accurate it would have to be a hypervisor. With a dom0 running an anorexic windows 8.
Sounds like they use the term RTOS as a code for hypervisor. They say it is an RTOS but then point out that it is not an OS (in that it doesn't run apps) and that it is a hypervisor (in that it hosts Windows 8.) So either their name is wrong, or their description is.
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@scottalanmiller said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
@DustinB3403 said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
@black3dynamite said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
What would you call Xbox One system, a hypervisor or OS?
http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-architecture-explained-runs-windows-8-virtually-indistinguishable/If the article is accurate it would have to be a hypervisor. With a dom0 running an anorexic windows 8.
Sounds like they use the term RTOS as a code for hypervisor. They say it is an RTOS but then point out that it is not an OS (in that it doesn't run apps) and that it is a hypervisor (in that it hosts Windows 8.) So either their name is wrong, or their description is.
Ok, I didnt read the article, I commented based on things i heard from Paul Thurrott.
So I'll admit my understanding might have been wrong.
As a side note, Xbox one has been upgraded to Windows 10 now....
It's weird that the article claims it's a partition not a VM....
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@Dashrender said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
@scottalanmiller said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
@DustinB3403 said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
@black3dynamite said in What is the Difference Between a Hypervisor and an Operating System:
What would you call Xbox One system, a hypervisor or OS?
http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-architecture-explained-runs-windows-8-virtually-indistinguishable/If the article is accurate it would have to be a hypervisor. With a dom0 running an anorexic windows 8.
Sounds like they use the term RTOS as a code for hypervisor. They say it is an RTOS but then point out that it is not an OS (in that it doesn't run apps) and that it is a hypervisor (in that it hosts Windows 8.) So either their name is wrong, or their description is.
Ok, I didnt read the article, I commented based on things i heard from Paul Thurrott.
So I'll admit my understanding might have been wrong.
As a side note, Xbox one has been upgraded to Windows 10 now....
It's weird that the article claims it's a partition not a VM....
Partition and VM are not competing concepts. Lots of VMs are partitions. One thing (VM vs physical) is about how it runs. Partition vs. something else is just where it is stored. Nothing in saying it is a partition suggests that it is not a VM.
Now we only have the article to go on, but the article seems pretty clear that it is a VM. But what it really is, no idea.
