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by Roshan_Roy 80 days ago
I think the article works better as a mental model than a literal claim. “Linux is an interpreter” feels wrong if you define interpretation strictly at the CPU instruction level, but it becomes more reasonable if you look at the kernel as something that interprets executable formats and environments (ELF, scripts with shebangs, initramfs, etc.). In that sense it’s less about instruction-by-instruction interpretation and more about orchestrating how different representations of programs become runnable. Maybe the confusion here is mixing those two meanings of “interpreter”.