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this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2026
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There is a book called how Linux works.
But the short answer is. Linux provides the kernel that includes a lot of functionality out of the box. Drivers so all hardware can be abstracted away, scheduling of tasks, a filesystem with privileges, processmanagement etc. This lives in the kernel.
In userland, there is more or less the GUI stuff (not entirely true). You can interact with higher privileges if you have the rights / sudo.
Linux makes you hardware run and abstracts it away in Operating System.
Long answer. Read the book. It is very good.
I don't really understand how software translates to hardware.
Like, I do... I understand that a driver takes a software value of {0,1} and converts it into a concrete voltage for that device... I just don't understand how a voltage rail can just be fiddled with like that without someone mechanically restricting the flow.
Like, I do... I understand how a transistor can regulate the flow of electricity to another circuit, by using a base to restrict the emitter to collector flow.... I just don't understand how that "switch" mechanism isn't pre-determined from some beginning sequence. A timing sequence instead of an event-driven one.
Like, I do... I understand how a simple ratchet / flip flop works in terms of constructing chaotic or aperiodic cyclic flows.... I just don't see how they were initialised in the first place to force them into specific branches of computation.
Like, I do... I understand how a CPU is made up millions/billions of such devices, reacting off external device voltages to drive software paths, all initialised in such a way to allow for any number of configurations.... I just don't understand how we can do it in such a formalized relatively error-free way that appears to defy entropy
Great comment, took me back to computer architecture. Not sure I can answer. Just a postulate, is it because the electric forces are a billion times stronger than gravity so they both neutralize quicker, but also can more reliably and precisely cause electricity to flow because when you do disturb that balance, it's much stronger than the interactions with massive systems we're used to visualizing?
That, as well as how computers will run the same computation multiple times and select output bits by majority rules to correct errors from say cosmic rays causing some bits to flip part way through one (but not all) of the fault tolerant circuits?
My last one was more of a joke, but my other statements hold. I think what I'm essentially asking is:
I understand how a pendulum works, I understand how a Newton's swing works, I understand how Newton's swing can start off another swing elsewhere... I'm just not clear on the nature of the finger that started off the first swing
Let me save you a hundred hours, the book ends with "and that is why we don't understand how Linux works".