To avoid title disputes we'll use the word "tools" above.

It's an operating system insofar as it's a layer of services on top of the "bare metal" that is the EVM. Through those services it allows the development of complex applications in the same way a normal OS does.

How does that differ from installing a web framework, or an application? That doesn't seem like an operating system to me.

Good question. Both libraries and frameworks (the main difference between the two being the inversion of control) are addenda to your application, aimed at providing more features and building blocks to set up more complex behaviours.

zOS takes this one step further, including not only libraries for SC development, but also aiming at defining interoperability standards, mechanics and economics for having independent contracts interact between them as independent actors (or processes, if you will) on a shared computing space that is the blockchain.

I think the key here in terms of semantics is that zOS is not just an Operating System, but rather an Operating System for the blockchain. And when we go there, we don't have many definitions available, but are rather waiting to be made.

Seems like "framework" or "library" would be better; this isn't exactly a scheduler or resource allocator in the same way an os implies.

↑↑ Check the reply above by spalladino2.