Linux is a member of a long lineage of operating systems that assume centralized processors connected by a slow bus to volatile memory that only temporarily holds information that needs to be backed up by other devices connected to buses much slower than memory. Every OS in current use is based on these ideas that haven't changed much since the 60's.
If you want, you may imagine Smalltalk running directly on metal with no OS underneath it, with all your data being just part of the image you work with. This is the kind of machine that this makes possible. This was, of course, done in the 80's with technology that was barely sufficient.
You shouldn't.
Linux is a member of a long lineage of operating systems that assume centralized processors connected by a slow bus to volatile memory that only temporarily holds information that needs to be backed up by other devices connected to buses much slower than memory. Every OS in current use is based on these ideas that haven't changed much since the 60's.
If you want, you may imagine Smalltalk running directly on metal with no OS underneath it, with all your data being just part of the image you work with. This is the kind of machine that this makes possible. This was, of course, done in the 80's with technology that was barely sufficient.