ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

SO(8)

So, you know how sometimes when you play with your toys, you need to follow rules so everyone can play nicely? Well, when grown-ups use computers, they also need rules so the computer can understand what they want it to do.

One set of rules that grown-ups use is called "so(8)". It's like a big book of instructions that tells the computer how to do different things, like how to talk to other devices and how to keep all the files in order.

The name "so(8)" might sound weird, but it's just a way of organizing things so grown-ups can find what they need easily. The "so" part stands for "system operation" because it has rules about how the computer system should run, and the "8" part means it's the 8th section in a big book of rules.

When someone uses "so(8)", they have to be very careful to follow the rules exactly or the computer might get confused and not work right. But if they do it correctly, the computer can do amazing things like run programs and store information for years and years.