Question on back office OS for workstations and servers for a company that makes OS for customers as a service

Question

Hi, I had a question that I needed help in clarifying so that I can understand what I am writing for my homework. If a operating system company who makes embedded operating systems for several customers, would they still need to have other vendors and services to be implemented in their back office? Or can they just use their own products for their back office workstations and servers?

Answer 1

An embedded OS is not a general-purpose OS.  It may not support screes, keyboards, mice, or other peripherals.  Often, the OS runs stand-alone (and may be loaded from ROM memory by a power-on operation) and only has sensors and effectors.  Linux derivatives (e.g., Android) devices are a great example of this.

There are also free and supported versions of Linux for both workstations and servers.  These may be used to develop the real-time OS (and run it using emulators).  So, the company may use this arrangement.  The company may also use Mac or Windows OS’s which have nice development tools.

Of course, it is possible to develop a unique operating system.  It is not very valuable unless it can run many applications.  Unless there are very special circumstances, no company would develop operating system software when they can buy it very inexpensively.  However, there are often special language compilers and applications tools that are developed by companies, colleges, and government facilities.