The titular quote above, opening this post, is something an old friend long ago said to me, a few years before he got hired by the storied Bell Labs (then known as Lucent, later Alcatel/Lucent). His point was that an OS is just something to enable human interaction, plus something that provides a context for additional applications post-setup. The real work is done by CPU, memory and other hardware. Even within the OS, the human part could be considered secondary, since the kernel does the core duties of file system management, memory management and job stack scheduling (to use antique terms). And if the kernel, needed programs and related libraries are working fine, who needs GUIs or even terminals? Put the whole thing on a card and have a remove/replace guy power down, switch for new part, power up and rock on, dude. And if you must, virtualize the whole thing, script that replacement process and you have the same freedom from interactivity (with three additional problems if you're in the cloud: hypervisor vulnerabilities, API vulnerabilities and access at the cloud provider by staff members whom you don't control).
But I digress.
I understand that personal computers are tools that allow humans to get stuff done, so I'm not telling you not to "startx", so to speak (to use a graphical user interface). After all, I'm now posting on a board related to a User's Group that is dedicated to a particular OS, which is FOR human interactivity. I'm merely advocating a concern for computing above and beyond the which-OS-is-better debate. I certainly have an opinion as to what's better or worse, but in point of fact, I use any and every system even remotely popular. That's due to curiosity as well as for professional reasons. The OS choice, while not unimportant, should be made with an eye toward ultimate use. What do you need to do? Why do you need to network from A to B? Is security a concern - or not? Is the computer for a narrow technical use or a general-use entertainment device? Is location or compatibility a concern? Is a computer or network even necessary? The OS question is only one of many questions on the way to the success of some ultimate use, project, activity or work.
