Patent attributes
Systems and methods of installing and provisioning an operating system are disclosed. The installing and provisioning of the operating system can be performed in multiple discrete, optional steps, utilizing a repository of various partially or fully defined operating system representations. The operating system representation is optionally generated by determining software resource dependencies and is optionally used to provision an operating system on a target platform in real-time in response to a request. In some embodiments, use of the operating system representation allows the operating system to be installed on the target platform more quickly. The operating system is optionally configured to support a virtual machine.