[Info-vax] HP wins Oracle Itanium case

[ChrisQ]

On 08/23/12 20:14, Stephen Hoffman wrote:

>
> The purpose of an operating system, of a database or other record
> management system, and most other frameworks, is to abstract the
> lower-level interfaces. An operating system is a bag of device drivers,
> and a selection of tools and abstractions.
>
> A file system can be built upon, but is not necessarily dependent on
> sector-addressable hard disk storage systems.
>
> The file system abstracts the disk storage.
>
> Few folks want to deal with programming disk storage hardware directly,
> and (going forward) the baroque interfaces and constructs are
> undoubtedly and eventually headed for deprecation. As non-solid-state
> rotating-rust storage dies (slowly), so too will the interfaces. And I'd
> prefer to move that abstraction up further, and dispense with the
> hassles inherent in RMS-style interfaces.
>
> Will some folks need sector-level access? Sure. Some folks still use
> assembler, or machine code directly, and not the higher-level languages
> and their abstractions. But most have moved on from there.
>

Very much so. If you consider that the basic function of an operating system
is to provide services to applications, then the more generic and abstract
you can make those services, the more applications will be able to make use
of them...

Regards,