ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (09/09/90)
1. WHAT IS MINIX 1.5 MINIX 1.5 is a new version of an operating system that is very similar to UNIX. MINIX has been written from scratch, and therefore does not contain any AT&T code--not in the kernel, the compiler, the utilities, or the libraries. For this reason it can be made available with the complete source code (on diskette). It runs on the IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, 386, and most clones. Versions are also available for the Atari ST, Macintosh, and Amiga. This version (1.5) is a major improvement over all previous releases, with many new features, fewer bugs (hopefully), much better performance, and proper documentation. The old versions have been in widespread use all over the world for 3 years. There are probably tens of thousands of users. 2. MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (IBM, Macintosh, Atari, and Amiga versions) - System call compatible with V7 of the UNIX operating system - Full multiprogramming (multiple programs can run at once) - Kernighan and Ritchie compatible C compiler - Shell that is functionally identical to the Bourne shell - Five editors (emacs subset, vi clone, ex, ed, and simple screen editor) - Over 175 utilities (cat, cp, ed, grep, kermit, ls, make, sort, etc.) - Over 200 library procedures (atoi, fork, malloc, read, stdio, etc.) - Spelling checker with 40,000 word English dictionary - Full source code (in C) supplied on diskettes (OS, utilities, libraries) - Easy-to-read manual telling all about MINIX and how to install and use it 3. ADDITIONAL FEATURES In addition to the above features, there are other features present in some (but not all) versions of MINIX 1.5. Some of these are listed below. 3.1 ADDITIONAL MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (IBM VERSION): - Runs in protected mode on 286 and 386 - Support for extended memory up to 16M on 286 and 386 - Up to 3 simultaneous users on one machine - RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc. - Distributed computing on Ethernet (remote login, etc.) 3.2 ADDITIONAL MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (MACINTOSH VERSION): - Up to 3 simultaneous users on one machine - RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc. - Runs under Multifinder - Includes support for multiple user windows 3.3 ADDITIONAL MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (ATARI ST VERSION) - Up to 2 simultaneous users on one machine - RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc. - Support for various real time clocks (Mega, BMS, ICD, Supra, Weide) 4. HARDWARE REQUIRED - IBM: PC, XT, AT, PS/2, or 386 that is 100% hardware compatible with the IBM line. A hard disk not technically required, but is strongly recommended to take full advantage of the system. At least 512K of RAM is required, as well as a CGA, EGA, monochrome, or Hercules video card, or another card that emulates one of these. Both 5.25" and 3.5" diskettes are supported, as are printers using the parallel port and modems and terminals using the serial port. - Macintosh: Apple Macintosh Plus, SE, SE/30, II, IIcx, or IIx with at least 1M of RAM. An additional 1M of RAM and a hard disk is strongly recommended. MINIX has been tested primarily with version 6.0 and latter of the Apple system software. Problems may conceivably arise with earlier versions. Any hard disk or display that is supported by the normal Macintosh OS is also supported by MINIX. - Atari: Atari ST or Mega ST with at least 1M of RAM. Although the system will boot with only 512K, you will be very restricted in what you can do. A 720K diskette drive is required to install the software. The older 360K diskette drives are supported, but are not capable of reading the (720K) distribution disks. A hard disk is supported, but is optional. - Amiga: Commodore Amiga 500 or 2000 with at least 1M of RAM. One 720K diskette drive is sufficient. A hard disk is not required (or even supported). To use a hard disk with the Amiga, someone familiar with how this disk works will have to write a driver for it. If this driver is then posted to the net, it will be possible to use a hard disk with MINIX on the Amiga. 5. PARTIAL LIST OF UTILITIES INCLUDED IN MINIX 1.5 animals ar ascii at atrun backup badblocks banner basename bawk btoa cal cat cdiff cgrep chgrp chip chmem chmod chown clr cmp comm compress cp cpdir crc cron ctags cut date dd de df dhrystone diff diskcheck dosdir dosread doswrite du echo ed elle ex expand expr factor fgrep file find fold fortune fsck gather getlf getty grep gres head ic id ifdef indent inodes kill last leave ln login look lpr ls m4 machine mail make man mined mkdir mkfs mknod modem more mount mref mv nm nroff od passwd paste patch pr prep pretty printenv printroot ps pwd readall readfs recover ref rev rm rmdir roff rz sed shar size sleep sort spell split strings strip stty su sum sync sz tail tar tee term termcap test time touch tr traverse treecmp true tset tsort ttt umount unexpand uniq unshar update users uud uue vi vol wc whatsnew whereis which who whoami width write 6. PARTIAL LIST OF LIBRARY FUNCTIONS INCLUDED IN MINIX 1.5 abort abs access alarm atoi atol bcmp bcopy chmod chown chroot ctermid ctime ctype curses cuserid doprintf dup dup2 fgetc fgets fopen fork fpathconf fprintf fputc fputs fread freopen fseek fstat ftell fwrite getcwd getdents getegid getenv geteuid getgid getutil gtty index ioctl isatty kill link lock lrand lsearch lseek malloc memccpy memchr memcmp memcpy memmove memset message mkdir mkfifo mknod mktemp nlist open opendir pathconf pause peekpoke perror rand read readdir regexp regsub rename setbuf setgid setjmp setuid signal sleep sprintf stat strerror strlen strncat strncmp strncpy strpbrk strrchr strspn system telldir termcap time times tmpnam ttyname umask umount 7. CONTENTS OF MINIX 1.5 REFERENCE MANUAL Chap. 1 INTRODUCTION Chap. 2 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE IBM PC, XT, AT, 386, AND PS/2 Chap. 3 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE ATARI S Chap. 4 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE COMMODORE AMIGA Chap. 5 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE APPLE MACINTOSH Chap. 6 USING MINIX Chap. 7 RECOMPILING MINIX Chap. 8 MANUAL PAGES Chap. 9 EXTENDED MAN PAGES Chap. 10 SYSTEM CALLS Chap. 11 NETWORKING App. A MINIX SOURCE CODE LISTING App. B CROSS REFERENCE MAP 8. MINIX BOOK The author of MINIX, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, has written a book describing how operating systems in general and MINIX in particular work internally. The book describes an earlier version (and includes a source listing), but it is still useful for understanding how MINIX works inside, even if some details are now different. The bibliographic information is: Title: Operating Systems: Design and Implementation Author: Andrew S. Tanenbaum Publisher: Prentice-Hall ISBN: 0-13-637406-9 Paperback versions are also available in English (outside North America only), French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. The books can be ordered from any bookstore. 9. HOW TO ORDER MINIX 1.5 MINIX 1.5 is being sold by Prentice-Hall. The product numbers and prices are as follows: - MINIX 1.5 for the IBM: 5 1/4" (0-13-585076-2) $169 - MINIX 1.5 for the IBM: 3 1/2" (0-13-585068-1) $169 - MINIX 1.5 for the Amiga (0-13-585043-6) $169 - MINIX 1.5 for the Atari (0-13-585035-5) $169 - MINIX 1.5 for the Macintosh (0-13-585050-9) $169 (available Oct. 1) Sales tax and shipping are extra; Prices are slightly higher outside the U.S. All versions include the executable binaries, a detailed manual, the complete source code (on diskettes), and an attractively typeset, cross-referenced listing of the operating system code. P-H is making a big effort to get software stores to keep MINIX in stock. The easiest way to order it is to go to a software store and ask them for it. If they don't stock it, they can always order it. Alternatively, you can order directly by email, FAX, phone, or mail from Prentice-Hall as follows. In North America and the Far East To order by email: books@prenhall.com To order by FAX: (201) 767-5625 To order by phone: (800) 624-0023 or (201) 767-5969 To order by mail: Microservice Customer Service Simon & Schuster 200 Old Tappan Road Old Tappan, NJ 07675 In UK/Europe To order by email: books@prenhall.com To order by FAX: +1 (201) 767-5625 (US number) To order by phone: +44 (442) 231-555 (UK number) To order by mail: Order Dept. Prentice-Hall International 66 Wood Lane End Hemel Hempstead Herts. HP2 4RG ENGLAND For email and FAX orders, please include the product name and number, your name and address, and your MasterCard or VISA card number and expiration date. If you wish delivery by Federal Express (costs extra), please indicate so. MINIX can also be ordered from the following addresses: In England: The MINIX Center Forncett End Norwich Norfolk NR16 1HT England 0953-89345 In Germany: Steve Steinkrauss Feldtorweg 24 D3406 Bovenden 1 Germany In the Benelux: Fred van Kempen Postbus 184 2100 AD Heemstede Holland Tel: +31 23 287935 FAX: +31 23 294229 In Scandinavia: Frank O'Donell P.O. Box 88 1371 Asker Norway In Spain and Deborah Worth Portugal: Appartado Numero 50672 Madrid Spain In Italy: Jim Blaho Piazza Santo Spirito 17 50125 Florence Italy In Greece: Vassilis Zahos Kritonos 5-7 GR 11634 Athens Greece In Turkey: Atilla Gullu Milli Mudafaa Cad 14/7 Kizilay Ankara Turkey If you have previously purchased MINIX from Prentice-Hall, you can get a discount of $60, but only if you order by mail and include the label from the original PH boot disk (or the entire disk) with your letter. Not valid for email, phone or FAX orders since you must enclose the original boot disk label (not a photocopy). Mail orders can be by credit card or check for $169. You will be billed for tax and shipping. 10. LEGAL STATUS OF MINIX Although MINIX is supplied with the complete source code, it is copyrighted software. It is not public domain. It is also not like GNU. However, the copyright owner, Prentice-Hall has granted permission to bona fide universities to copy the software for use in courses and in university research projects. It is also permitted for MINIX owners to change the software to suit their needs and to distribute diff listings containing their changes freely. The shrink-wrap license that comes with MINIX states that you may legally make two backup copies of the software. Prentice-Hall is being much less strict than other software vendors. Please do not abuse this. Companies that wish to embed MINIX in commercial systems or sell MINIX-based products should call (212) 995-7788 to discuss licensing terms. 11. NEWS ABOUT MINIX Since its introduction in January 1987, there has been a large an active USENET newsgroup about MINIX, comp.os.minix. It currently has about 25,000 members. Over 12,000 messages have been posted to this group so far. These messages have contained questions, bug reports, bug fixes, new software, and diff listings to allow current users to update to new releases for free. It is the intention to continue this policy into the indefinite future. MINIX users on Bitnet can be put on a mailing list by sending mail to: info-minix-request@udel.edu. Various archives store newsgroup traffic for newcomers to the newsgroup. 12. FUTURE PLANS The major current project is bringing MINIX into conformance with the IEEE POSIX P1003.1 and P1003.2 standards. This will (hopefully) occur with V2.0, perhaps in 1992. V2.0 will also be provided with an ANSI C compiler. Various people are currently working on 32-bit versions of MINIX for the 386, and numerous other projects. To keep up, subscribe to the comp.os.minix newsgroup. 13. WHERE CAN I GET PAST POSTINGS AND PROGRAMS? Many sites keep archives of MINIX-related material, ranging from archives of articles posted to more organized repositories of programs posted to the net. The complete MINIX distribution is NOT (repeat NOT) available from any online archive. This is not permitted. Only the newsgroup traffic is stored there. List Archives: bugs.nosc.mil Current louie.udel.edu July '87 - Dec '89 (?) vm1.nodak.edu Current year wsmr-simtel20.army.mil July '87 - Dec '89 (?) Formal Archives (MINIX sources): aerospace.aero.org doc.ic.ac.uk dsrgsun.ces.cwru.edu en.ecn.purdue.edu funet.fi hobbes.cs.umd.edu hub.cs.jmu.edu The Mars Hotel BBS NL-MUG plains.nodak.edu sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au terminator.cc.umich.edu 13.1. File Transfer on the Internet If you are on the Internet, you can get files from many places with the file transfer protocol ("FTP"). When connecting to the host system, use the user-name "anonymous" and any password. Most systems will ask for your "ident" as a password. It is considered good etiquette to use either your login name or mail address when asked. Once connected, look for a "README" file which should give further information about the archive. Consult your local documentation on the use of your FTP application program (generally called "ftp"). Please be nice to the FTP sites by restricting your use to non-business hours. The following sites provide Anonymous FTP aerospace.aero.org [130.221.192.10] bugs.nosc.mil [128.49.16.1] directory pub/MINIX comp.os.minix archives, PC, ST upgrade kits, MINIX-PC programs dsrgsun.ces.cwru.edu [129.22.16.2] directory pub/minix MINIX-ST programs (many GNU tools) en.ecn.purdue.edu [128.46.129.59] UUCP, 8088 Floading Point funet.fi [128.214.1.1] hobbes.cs.umd.edu [128.8.128.41] directory pub/minix copies of oz-utils: MINIX-PC hub.cs.jmu.edu [134.126.20.10] directory pub/minix MINIX-PC hd-boot package louie.udel.edu [128.175.1.3, 128.175.2.33] directory info-minix comp.os.minix archives (July '87 - Dec '89) plains.nodak.edu [134.129.111.64] directory pub/MINIX PC, ST upgrade kits, MINIX-PC & ST programs also has a mail server, archive-server@plains.nodak.edu. sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.40.3] directory pub/minix PC upgrade kits, MINIX-PC programs (oz-utils) terminator.cc.umich.edu [35.1.33.8] directory pub/atari/MINIX and pub/gnustuff ST upgrade kits, ST programs (GNU tools) This site may have a mail server. vm1.nodak.edu [134.129.111.1] directory minix-l this site has a mail server, listserv@vm1.noak.edu comp.os.minix archives (current and past year) wsmr-simtel20.army.mil [26.2.0.74] directory pd3:<misc.minix> comp.os.minix archives (not current) 13.2. Mail Servers Some archive sites provide access to their archives with a server program that responds to commands mailed to it. 13.2.1. doc.ic.ac.uk An archive of the worthwhile postings from the comp.os.minix newsgroup is available from uk.ac.ic.doc either via mail or by GUEST niftp. For details about how to access this service send a mail message with NO Subject: field to: info-server@uk.ac.ic.doc and a message body of: request catalogue topic minix request end This will mail you back details of the various ways to obtain the files. This service is only available inside the UK. We have no funds to send such mail internationally. This archive service is run by Lee McLoughlin. Janet: lmcl@uk.ac.ukc, lmjm@uk.ac.ic.doc DARPA: lmjm%uk.ac.ic.doc@ucl-cs Uucp: lmjm@icdoc.UUCP, ukc!icdoc!lmjm 13.2.2. NL-MUG The MINIX User Group Holland (abbreviated to NLMUG) maintains an archive of interesting documents, sources, binaries and patches for the MINIX operating system. In the future, an archive of all USENET (comp.os.minix) articles will be kept as well. The archive can be used by sending e-mail messages to one of the following addresses. To join the archive send a message to: Internet: arch-adm@minixug.hobby.nl Uucp: ..!hp4nl!hgatenl!minixug!arch-adm For sending requests, send a message to: Internet: archive@minixug.hobby.nl Uucp : ..!hp4nl!hgatenl!minixug!archive The "Uucp" address should be used ONLY if your mailer cannot handle internet-style addresses, or if the message bounced back to you. Since the NLMUG Archive is a (more or less) private archive, we cannot afford ourselves to make it an open archive. In Europe, we must pay a quarter for every Kbyte of mail being sent out. This means, of course, that we want to know who use the archive. It is our goal, to only LOG the usage. We don't intend to BILL people for using the archive... Because of all this, the server looks at the requester's name, and sees if it may access the archive. Usually this is OK, but if people start misbehaving, they might get locked out. This is mainly the case when people have downloaded tons of stuff, without a single introduction first. We do NOT appreciate anonymous file transfers! Therfore, send a short message introducing yourself to the Archive Administrator to keep him happy. The Archive Service is actually a program running on a MINIX system. It is started once a day by cron(1) to have a look at its mailbox. To use the archive, you should first send a request to the archive administrator (arch-adm) requesting access to the archive. After you have received an acknowledgement of your request, get the server's help file by sending a message to the server (archive) saying: HELP and you will be sent details on using the server. This server is maintained by Fred van Kempen <waltje@minixug.hobby.nl> 13.2.3. plains.nodak.edu An archive of MINIX upgrades and other interesting files are kept in a manually-maintained archive on Plains.NoDak.edu [134.129.111.64]. For those not fortunate enough to be on the Internet itself, we run the Clarkson server to process mail requests. This is an extremely versatile program, that allows various encoding formats (btoa, uuencode), compression (compress, arc, zoo) and splitting of large files. The server has been customized to send HELP and Index files at any time, and all other files between 23:00 and 08:00 local time. If you submit a request that contains *any* file that is not a Help or Index file, the entire request is queued until late night (currently 23:00 local time, but that may be moved to earlier hours of the morning if it proves to be a large load on the system). The addresses for the server are: archive-server@plains.nodak.edu {umn-cs, ogicse, uunet}!plains!archive-server (UUCP) fileserv@plains (Bitnet) Note to Bitnet people: this server is not 'logged on' to the machine, so you cannot send it interactive messages. The 'fileserv' alias was added for those of you who do not run the Croswell mailer, but you must still use something that is detectable as mail (such as a NOTE). Bitnet files will drop into our bit bucket, unprocessed, since there is no real user by either of these names. To obtain a list of the files, the INDEX command is used: index [ <directory> ] where <directory> is a directory under our ~ftp/pub login(empty for the main directory). There are several other directories of programs for microcomputers, current volumes for comp.sources.* and some of the Free Software Foundation's products. The SEND command is used for having files sent to you, such as in: send MINIX/doc/Info_Sheet That file is a copy of the monthly "MINIX Information Sheet" posting. The MINIX Compatibility Report is available in the file "MINIX/doc/Compatibility". There are many more options for having your files compressed (note: most files in these directories already have been compressed with 13-bit compression), uuencoded, split, and so on. To obtain more information on the server, send the command: help and you will be enlightened. The server accepts commands in mixed case, but all directory/file names are case significant (just like MINIX). This archive is maintained by Glen Overby, <minix@plains.nodak.edu>, at North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND USA (46 52 N / 96 48 W city) 13.2.4. vm1.nodak.edu North Dakota State University is the host site for distribution of the info-minix mailing list (also known as minix-l), which is bidirectionally gatewayed to the Usenet group Comp.os.minix. We maintain archives of all list traffic from within the past year or so (depending on space availability). Archives are available via Anonymous FTP on the Internet, and LIST-SERV file requests from other networks. Our server is: Internet: listserv@vm1.NoDak.EDU [134.129.111.1] Bitnet: listserv@ndsuvm1 UUCP: psuvax1!ndsuvm1.bitnet!listserv uunet!plains!vm1.nodak.edu!listserv If you do not have Internet access, you may request files be sent to you by our LISTSERV file server by sending it commands in the body of a mail message. To obtain a list of the files, the INDEX command is used: INDEX MINIX-L The GET command will instruct LISTSERV to send you a file, such as: get minix-l LOG9005A minix-l to get the file "MINIX-L LOG9005A" from the directory "MINIX-L". The filename tells what year, month, and week it is from: MINIX-L LOGyymmw where "yy" is the year, "mm" is the numeric month and "w" is an alphabetic character from A to E indicating what week of the month. Several months of log files are kept on-line, the number depending on disk space availability. Due to the 80-character per line (punched card) limit on Bitnet mail, many of the files will be shipped using an encoding scheme that allows logical lines to be split up into many physical lines. On Bitnet, this is normally the IBM "DISK DUMP" or "NETDATA" format, and for ther networks it is "List- serv Punch". Listserv Punch was designed by Listserv's author and is designed to send files with lines longer than 80 characters thru the Bitnet gateways. A special program to decode the file once it has arrived at your site. Information on obtaining a program to decode listserv punch format is sent with each encoded file. If you would rather have a file sent to you uuencoded, you may specify that in your GET command: get minix info minix f=uuencode please note that the file, once decoded, will be in EBCDIC! SEARCHING THE MAILING LIST LOGS WITH LISTSERV If you are looking for a specific article, or set of articles, you can perform searches on this directory using the Database functions of Listserv. For example, to obtain a "Subject" index of the MINIX-L archives, send the listserv a file or mail with the following "job" in the message body: // JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * search * in minix-l since 90/04/01 index and you will be sent a file containing all of the 'Subject:' lines sent to the mailing list since December 1, 1989. If you wish to request one or more items, replace the 'index' line in the above job with "print [ref-num]", where "refnum" is the reference number from the index listing. Documentation on this and other database functions is available by sending the command "INFO DATABASE" to the listserv. To obtain more information on the listserv, send the command: INFO ? and you will be enlightened with a list of available documentation on using LISTSERV. This archive is automatically maintained by the list server. If you have questions, contact Glen Overby, <minix@plains.nodak.edu>, at North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND USA (46 52 N / 96 48 W city) 13.3. Publicly accessable Bulletin Boards For people without a network connection, there is a PC-based Electronic Bulletin Board System (BBS) that has carried the traffic of Usenet's Comp.os.minix steadily since August, 1987 as well as a formal MINIX archive. The BBS is not a true gateway to Usenet, like some Fidonet nodes are; rather it is a "delivery service" whereby new comp.os.minix articles are gathered daily and posted as messages on the BBS. Long articles are automatically ARC'ed and posted to the file area for downloading. Raw traffic is kept for about 2 months. Once a month the articles of lasting interest from the previous month are saved into several ARC files, all less than 100K, to make downloading easier. For any given month, the index of articles is in MNXyymmA.ARC, and the actual articles start in MNXyymmB.ARC. You can just download the index, then download the ARC files that contain articles of interest to you. A complete index is always in MNXINDEX.ARC. Call: The Mars Hotel BBS, (301)277-9408 (PC-Pursuitable) 300,1200,2400 baud, 8,n,1. No registration required, no donations accepted. Everyone gets 60 minutes/day. No upload/download ratios (but don't be a jerk!) Spread the word to those without net access. This BBS is run by James da Silva. UUCP: uunet!mimsy!jds Internet: jds@mimsy.umd.edu
edp367s@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Rik Harris) (09/11/90)
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes: > - Amiga: Commodore Amiga 500 or 2000 with at least 1M of RAM. One 720K > diskette drive is sufficient. Does this mean that it doesn't work with the 1000, or that it hasn't been tested on the 1000, or that no-one really knows, so we just leave it out and hope no-one notices :) ? >8. MINIX BOOK >Paperback versions are also available in English (outside North America only), >French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. The books can be ordered from any >bookstore. Does that mean that the North American version is only hardcover? Books are expensive enough already. >9. HOW TO ORDER MINIX 1.5 >Sales tax and shipping are extra; Prices are slightly higher outside the U.S. > Alternatively, you >can order directly by email, FAX, phone, or mail from Prentice-Hall as follows. >In North America and the Far East > To order by email: books@prenhall.com >In UK/Europe > To order by email: books@prenhall.com What about Australia? Will they accept an email order from Australia? or FAX/phone? >For email and FAX orders, please include the product name and number, your >name and address, and your MasterCard or VISA card number and expiration date. >If you wish delivery by Federal Express (costs extra), please indicate so. > If you have previously purchased MINIX from Prentice-Hall, you can get >a discount of $60, but only if you order by mail and include the label from >the original PH boot disk (or the entire disk) with your letter. Not valid for >email, phone or FAX orders since you must enclose the original boot disk label >(not a photocopy). What if the version purchased was different to the one you want to buy now? eg. If you bought the atari st version earlier, and now want the amiga version? If you can answer one or more of the questions, please post or e-mail, no preference. rik. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rik Harris - Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, Monash University, Caulfield Campus (was Chisholm Institute), Australia edp367s@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au <-- what the computer says it is edp367s@monu6.cc.monash.oz[.au] <-- SEEMS to work more reliably Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rik Harris - Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, Monash University, Caulfield Campus (was Chisholm Institute), Australia edp367s@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au <-- what the computer says it is
cagney@chook.ua.oz (Andrew Cagney - aka Noid) (09/14/90)
From article <1990Sep11.073655.6259@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>, by edp367s@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Rik Harris): >>In UK/Europe >> To order by email: books@prenhall.com > > What about Australia? Will they accept an email order from Australia? or > FAX/phone? Try PH in Sydney, I'm told they are at least aware of MINIX 1.5 Andrew Cagney
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (09/14/90)
In article <1990Sep11.073655.6259@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> edp367s@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Rik Harris) writes: >Does this mean that it doesn't work with the 1000, or that it hasn't been tested It has not been tested. It might well work. No guarantee thought. >Does that mean that the North American version is only hardcover? Yes. >What about Australia? Will they accept an email order from Australia? or >FAX/phone? Yes. >What if the version purchased was different to the one you want to buy now? >eg. If you bought the atari st version earlier, and now want the amiga >version? They will see this as a new product, not an upgrade. ANdy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)
UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) (09/15/90)
It occurs to me that the subject line of this thread is somewhat misleading. Minix is not really a "UNIX clone" in the sense that a COMPAQ is an IBM clone, for example. Minix 1.x was originally created more as a teaching tool than anything else, does not offer many of the features of a modern UNIX, and lacks many of the utilities. After all, it will run on a plain vanilla IBM PC (8088, 2 floppies, 640K). The source is there so that students and experimenters can develop better algorithms for scheduling, swapping, and so on. Tanenbaum even says somewhere in the book that Minix is written to be clear rather than fast. No doubt Minix 2.0 is much improved, but I still doubt it is a "clone" to the degree that Mach is. Or Coherent, or whatever (what was it? Wendin dos?) lee
cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) (09/15/90)
UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) writes: }It occurs to me that the subject line of this thread is somewhat misleading. }Minix is not really a "UNIX clone" in the sense that a COMPAQ is an }IBM clone, for example. Actually, I thought it _is_ a Unix clone in just that sense, just not the "unix" that most of us think of as being "Unix". I'm not REAL familiar with Minix, but as I understood, to first order the first version of Minix was a reimplementation of 7th Edition Unix. } Tanenbaum even says somewhere in the }book that Minix is written to be clear rather than fast. Well, the 7th edition code from AT&T was pretty clear, too, as it turns out. The 7th edition system was pretty much the last of the small-kernel, limited-service versions of Unix [of course, that philosophical idea is the _essence_ of Unix for some folk, and they find the Berkelely/SysV monster systems as abominations]. The system calls were simple and straightforward, and there was not a lot of mystery and magic inside the kernel. /Bernie\
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (09/15/90)
In article <90257.232245UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) writes: >Minix is not really a "UNIX clone" in the sense that a COMPAQ is an >IBM clone, for example. If by "clone" you mean "an exact replicated, indistinguishable from the orginal," then an awful lot of MS-DOS machines are not clones. If they were, the compatibility list posted here periodically would contain only "YES" entries, and a large volume of the traffic here would not be necessary. >No doubt Minix 2.0 is much improved, but I still doubt it is a "clone" >to the degree that Mach is. Or Coherent, or whatever (what was it? >Wendin dos?) Mach is not a clone of UNIX. It IS UNIX. The Mach 2.5 kernel contains most of the 4.3 BSD inside of it, which in turn, cotains thousands of lines of AT&T code. You cannot get Mach if you do not have an AT&T source license. This said, Mach also supports a large number of features not present in UNIX (ports, threads, etc.). I hardly think this qualifies for clonedom. Coherent, in contrast, is a genuine attempt at being a UNIX clone. Whether it is any good or not, I can't really say. A couple of months ago, there was a lot of discussion here, using the subject line: Re: Coherent - A lemon, or something like that. As to MINIX 1.5, it is not a plug-to-plug replacement for UNIX at the moment, but has a number of POSIX features (all the header files are ANSI and POSIX conformant, for example). It also comes with close to 200 utilities, most of which are similar to UNIX. Thus I think both MINIX and Coherent are both approximately closes, perhaps in the sense that a Tandy 1000 is a PC clone (i.e., sort of similar in spirit but different in some details). Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)
overby@plains.NoDak.edu (Glen Overby) (09/15/90)
In article <90257.232245UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) writes: >It occurs to me that the subject line of this thread is somewhat misleading. >[...] After all, it will run >on a plain vanilla IBM PC (8088, 2 floppies, 640K). The source is there How is that "evidence" for not being a Unix clone? I have a *REAL* Unix machine sitting right at hand: It's a PDP 11/23 with 256K RAM and a pair of 256K floppy disk drives. It can run (when turned on) a non-swapping Unix(TM) Version 6 ("Classic Unix" :-) with up to four users logged on via serial ports (no, I haven't ported C-news to it yet). My PC running Minix is quite a bit larger, but remember that Unix can run on Crays too, so size doesn't make much difference. -- Glen Overby <overby@plains.nodak.edu> uunet!plains!overby (UUCP) overby@plains (Bitnet)
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (09/16/90)
In article <7571@star.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes: >Mach is not a clone of UNIX. It IS UNIX. The Mach 2.5 kernel contains >most of the 4.3 BSD inside of it, which in turn, cotains thousands of >lines of AT&T code. You cannot get Mach if you do not have an AT&T >source license. This will not be true in the very near future. The next major version of Mach will be free of AT&T code, thereby making it publicly available to those of us w/o > $100K to spend on a UNIX source license (what a Sys V license costs last time I priced them). -- J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120 Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Skate UNIX(r)
jds@mimsy.umd.edu (James da Silva) (09/16/90)
In article <1990Sep15.182737.22534@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >In article <7571@star.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes: >>Mach is not a clone of UNIX. It IS UNIX. The Mach 2.5 kernel contains >>most of the 4.3 BSD inside of it, which in turn, cotains thousands of >>lines of AT&T code. You cannot get Mach if you do not have an AT&T >>source license. > >This will not be true in the very near future. The next major version >of Mach will be free of AT&T code, thereby making it publicly available >to those of us w/o > $100K to spend on a UNIX source license (what >a Sys V license costs last time I priced them). You might not need a $100K source licence, but you WILL need a few person-years of programming work: the free Mach release will contain the Mach micro-kernel (nugget?) only, not a replacement for the BSD Unix code that runs on top of it. You will have to write the filesystem, device drivers, network support, etc, etc, etc. Have fun. :-) Actually, between CMU, Berkeley, the FSF and the many net.contributors, we _will_ eventually have a completely free Unix. It's a couple years away yet, I think. Jaime ........................................................................... : domain: jds@cs.umd.edu James da Silva : path: uunet!mimsy!jds Systems Design & Analysis Group
rico@cbmvax.commodore.com (Rico Tudor) (09/16/90)
In article <7571@star.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes: >In article <90257.232245UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) writes: >>... >>No doubt Minix 2.0 is much improved, but I still doubt it is a "clone" >>to the degree that Mach is. Or Coherent, or whatever (what was it? >>Wendin dos?) >... >Coherent, in contrast, is a genuine attempt at being a UNIX clone. Whether >it is any good or not, I can't really say. A couple of months ago, there >was a lot of discussion here, using the subject line: Re: Coherent - A lemon, >or something like that. The design of Coherent called for rigorous compatibility with Bell Lab's UNIX Version 7. In this regard, the project was a success. With the breakup of AT&T, the anti-trust obstacles to that company's entry to the computer market were removed, sealing Coherent's fate. Coherent was the operating system for Commodore's ill-fated C900. The two people who instigated Amiga UNIX worked on the original Coherent, back in Chicago.
ward@sneezy.cs.wisc.edu (Mike Ward) (09/20/90)
I would say that anything that has a limitation such as only running programs as big as 128 Kbytes (64 Kbytes data, 64 KBytes instruction) is not a serious alternative whether you want to call it a "unix clone" or not. Therefore MINIX on the IBM-PC (non 80x86, x<3) is not a serious alternative. Ten years ago, maybe. However, it seems to me that MINIX on an ST, Amiga, or Mac is pretty serious. Mike ward@sneezy.cs.wisc.edu
adrie@philica.ica.philips.nl (Adrie Koolen) (09/21/90)
In article <11315@spool.cs.wisc.edu> ward@sneezy.cs.wisc.edu (Mike Ward) writes: > However, it seems to me that MINIX on an ST, Amiga, or Mac is >pretty serious. How about Minix on a SparcStation 1? (True 32-bits, gcc 1.37.1, 12 MIPS, lots of RAM, ...) Adrie Koolen (adrie@ica.philips.nl) Philips Innovation Centre Aachen
nwosuck@aix.aix.kingston.ibm.com (Kingsley Nwosu) (09/24/90)
In article <11315@spool.cs.wisc.edu>, ward@sneezy.cs.wisc.edu (Mike Ward) writes: > I would say that anything that has a limitation such as only running programs > as big as 128 Kbytes (64 Kbytes data, 64 KBytes instruction) is not a serious > alternative whether you want to call it a "unix clone" or not. Therefore > MINIX on the IBM-PC (non 80x86, x<3) is not a serious alternative. Ten years > ago, maybe. However, it seems to me that MINIX on an ST, Amiga, or Mac is > pretty serious. > > Mike > ward@sneezy.cs.wisc.edu .....Yes, MINIX is restrictive. .....Yes, you may quarrel with the qualification "unix clone". .....Yes, you may say that it is not a serious alternative. However, has it occurred to you that there are some people out there that don't have a good background in OS and appreciates the opportunity to experiment with a "restrictive" OS like MINIX? ...."c'est la vie." -- Kingsley Nwosu ...uunet!ibmps2!aix!nwosuck IBM AIX Dev., Dept. 83HA/572, |"All ambitions are lawful except those Neighborhood Rd, Kingston, |which climb upwards on the miseries NY 12401. |and credulities of mankind"