Context: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzRf8B-oDk Would it be possible to run mpv and a browser directly on hardware somehow? Perhaps in an environment that doesn’t classify as an operating system according to the definition in those California codes? I know that an operating system distributes workloads and facilitates communication between various hardware components, but would it be possible to build a Linux kernel that is “only” an interface to the CPU, a GPU, a sound card and a keyboard? One that can take commands to run for instance a browser^[Nowadays, a browser feels like a container that can run most things a physical computer would: stream media, serve as a word processor, play simple games, what have you.] and mpv? Having the user manually - through commands of physical switches - handle the inter component communication? Or perhaps by being a kernel it already falls under the definition of an OS? I’m just spitballing here. Barely know what I’m talking about, so please enlighten me! :D

There is no hard definition within the laws so this is all speculation. This means that there is no technical answer because the question in is core is a legal one. Your TV for example can have a browser without problems. You can have an integrated board that runs a full Linux without you being able to touch the underlying OS and let that start a browser, too. You know those tv screens that show you traffic into it flight plans at the airport? Those are often full Linux computers set up exactly like that. In short: we’ll only know when the law is actually being tested. It’s written in a way that I as layman could talk and software and even most hardware into it’s definition, it’s absolute bullshit…