Skip to Content
A stick figure smiling

If you want to see more comics like this, sign up for my saturday comics newsletter or browse more comics!

get the zine!
Image of a comic. To read the full HTML alt text, click "read the transcript".
read the transcript!

how to talk to your operating system

WRONG:

weird guy: good morning madam would you care to open a file for me
operating system: what

system calls! yay! (surrounded by hearts, smiley faces, and exclamation marks)

happy stick figure with curly hair:

open("/cool.txt")
connect(<my friend's computer>)

your programs can:

  • open
  • read
  • write

files

talk to other computers with networking:

  • connect
  • sendto
  • recvfrom

start other programs:

  • execue

AND MUCH MORE!!!

(these are all system calls on Linux!)