I have been wanting to see how the basics of software work for some time now, and I thought what better than Assembly! Unfortunately, most places I look show me how to call DOS interrupts or make Windows software. This just doesn't suit my needs.
I did find a few sites that show you examples without using external libraries (Which is exactly what I would like to know how to do), but then I come to the issue of how to run this standalone code. I thought the best way was start up a virtual machine and load my compiled code into the boot sector of a floppy and boot off of it, but this doesn't work too well for me.
So, if anybody knows any good resources, or how to get this standalone code to execute without an operating system in the background, I would be very appreciative for this information.

http://www.nondot.org/~sabre/os/articles

Thanks! That helped alot!