When we use a PC, we're usually only concerned with the program we're currently using, whether it's a browser, a word processor or our preferred social networking app. We don't often think about the rather extensive program underlying everything that happens on the PC: its operating system. We can fire off the name of our chosen OS at the drop of a hat (Windows 7, Chromium or Ubuntu, for example), but could we say just what it is and what it does? When we think of an operating system at all, it's usually to help define what our PC is - 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Windows 7, for example. It's almost like a physical peripheral; something we could swap for a similar substitute in the future. And until now, the operating system defined a PC just like the hardware. We've grown up with large, all-encompassing operating systems that provided a wealth of services, but that might be on the cusp of changing. Let's start by considering what a PC is
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