Why does Linux require a file system?
Legacy VxWorks systems initialize by loading a single image from ROM to RAM. That image contains the VxWorks kernel, libraries, drivers, applications and any other code and often data of interest. In this context, the notion of a file system entails additional software to access external storage media. By contrast Linux requires the presence of a file system to operate. The main reason behind this requirement is that programs in Linux, starting at boot-time with init, are invoked by supplying a file descriptor/pathname for retrieving a program image. (At the process level. Threads within processes are launched comparably to VxWorks tasks, with pthread_create().) The Linux loader and APIs like execv() follow this paradigm, regardless of whether the program in question is a binary executable, a script or other program entity. Linux does not require, however, the presence of rotating media, i.e., disks. Embedded designs and even desktop and server distributions can operate from file syste
