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# What is an OS bootstrap?

An operating system's bootstrap is the process that happens shortly
after you press the power on button, as shown below:

Power-on -> Bios -> Bootloader ->  **OS Bootstrap** -> service manager

Note that in this context the OS bootstrap is not [building a
distribution and packages from source
code](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Bootstrapping.html).
The OS bootstrap has nothing to do with [reproducible
builds](https://reproducible-builds.org/).