shell and kernel?

[patomoon]

I often see these 2 words shell and kernel in some articles associated with operation systems such as Windows and Linux, I don't know what they are and what they are for, are they the parts of the operation systems.

Thanks!

[canon006]

Well, I had my own sort of definition written out here, then remembered everything2.com, which has very good dictionary-like definitions of common terminology.

shell (you may have to scroll down a little) (http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=shell)

and the relevant entry for kernel-
"The kernel is the most low-level piece of software that drives an operating system. It is also often the most hardware dependent piece of code. The Linux kernel was originally written by Linux Torvalds for the x86 architecture, but has been ported to many others."

If that definition of kernel isn't enough, search everything2.com, there some longer more detailed definitions.

<edit>Wikipedia is good too. (http://en.wikipedia.org) </edit>

[mdwatts]

Good topic for /dev/random of which you will likely receive more replies. :)

[twilli227]

http://www.linuxhotbox.com/howto/Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO/running-programs.html

[patomoon]

Since kernel is the part of the operating system, What are the other parts of the operating system such as Linux and Windows? Thanks!

[hard candy]

Search for a site called wikipedia. Enter operating system, windows, linux, kernel, user space, operating system components as search terms.