In the end, almost everything runs on some kind of OS. All those little functions in the void also have to run in an OS, but this is abstracted away from the user.
Congratulations on understanding what an abstraction is. Do I need to worry about the transistors or individual atoms in a computer? Why should UNIX be the right level of abstraction forever?
I didn't write to explain what an abstraction is, and I will assume you honestly meant to congratulate me instead of trying to be sarcastic. Thank you for that.
I have had two types of developers in my teams: one type that understands the underlying technology of the abstractions that they are using, and one type that only understands the layer/abstraction they are interacting with and blissfully clueless about anything underneath.
Neither group worries about transistors or proton decay in their hardware, and both can make 'things'. However, one group is much more capable of effectively building tools and understanding issues when something goes wrong in the chain, whereas the other group is regularly hopelessly lost because they have no clue of what is happening. I'll let you guess which is which.
This is not about worrying or even being bothered with details, but about understanding what you're working with.
