icsu8053@caesar.cs.montana.edu (Craig Pratt) (06/05/90)
I'm interested in buying minix this summer but I have a few questions:
- How well does it work in about 10MB of disk space?
- Can you read ST disks?
- How well does it interface with a modem, printer and mouse?
- How much modification do Unix sources need to compile with gcc under
Minix?
- What kind of shell(s) can you use?
- How well does the remote logon operate off the rs232 port?
- How happy are you with the package?
- How much does it cost?
- Where can I get it?
Thank you for any information.
Craig
--
/ Craig Pratt / Montana State University, Bozeman MT/
/ Craig.Pratt@msu3.oscs.montana.edu / " Practically odor-free! " /
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
/ "Facts are stupid things." - Ronald Reagan, 1988 Republican Convention / scott@cs.odu.edu (Scott Yelich) (06/05/90)
>I'm interested in buying minix this summer but I have a few questions: I was too. So I bought it. $80.00 > - How well does it work in about 10MB of disk space? Apparently, it will fit with no problem. Of course, there are such concerns as now much ram your computer has and how heavily you are going to use Minix. > - Can you read ST disks? Sure. > - How well does it interface with a modem, printer and mouse? You will have to find/write device drivers. > - How much modification do Unix sources need to compile with gcc under > Minix? Got me. gcc takes more ram that I have (I have a 1040st with a meg...) I would assume that certain programs (comp.unix.sources) would compile without too many modifications at all. Again, I don't have the ram for gcc. > - What kind of shell(s) can you use? I like sh.... but I have other ptoblems with minix-- see bottom. > - How well does the remote logon operate off the rs232 port? I wish I knew, but from what I hear, you can get remote logins via the rs232 and the midi port. > - How happy are you with the package? As of yet, not very happy at all. > - How much does it cost? $80 > - Where can I get it? Prentice Hall? Here is why I posted this: I sent in my $80.00 and I received ST Minix 1.1. Version 1.1 is ok, but I started reading comp.os.minix and I soon found out that it wasn't the latest version. Not only that, but by the time I read an article in comp.os.minix, a new version had come out. This has repeated until now, I think... the current version is something like 1.5.10. Of course, there is no standard method of upgrading and from what I can gather, there is no one place where you can pick up any upgrades for say, from version 1.1 to 1.5.10. So, you can order your Minix now and you will probably get an old version. I thought I heard talk of a new release 2.0 (or was it 2.1?) for later this year. I sure hope Prentice Hall will accept the old disks back as part of some sort of upgrade because I have not spent the time to mess with 1.1 since the newer versions appear to be sufficiently enhanced to the point where the old version would not be worth the effort to maintain it. :( ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott D. Yelich scott@[xanth.]cs.odu.edu [128.82.8.1] After he pushed me off the cliff, he asked me, as I fell, ``Why'd you jump?'' Administrator of: Game design requests to <game-design-request@cs.odu.edu> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
meulenbr@cst.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks) (06/06/90)
[lots of questions trimmed] scott@cs.odu.edu (Scott Yelich) writes: >> - How well does it interface with a modem, printer and mouse? >You will have to find/write device drivers. release 1.5 supports the modem and serial printers. Parallel printers were already supported in 1.1 >I sent in my $80.00 and I received ST Minix 1.1. Version 1.1 is ok, >but I started reading comp.os.minix and I soon found out that it >wasn't the latest version. Not only that, but by the time I read an >article in comp.os.minix, a new version had come out. This has >repeated until now, I think... the current version is something like >1.5.10. Of course, there is no standard method of upgrading and from >what I can gather, there is no one place where you can pick up any >upgrades for say, from version 1.1 to 1.5.10. >So, you can order your Minix now and you will probably get an old >version. I thought I heard talk of a new release 2.0 (or was it 2.1?) >for later this year. I sure hope Prentice Hall will accept the old >disks back as part of some sort of upgrade because I have not spent >the time to mess with 1.1 since the newer versions appear to be >sufficiently enhanced to the point where the old version would not be >worth the effort to maintain it. Scott, you did NOT get an old version. The one and only version currently available is ST 1.1. This version is close to the PC 1.3 version. I did the upgrade from ST 1.1 to PC 1.5. Since my upgraded version and PC 1.5 are compatible, we decided to call this new version ST 1.5. ST 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4 were never distributed! The upgrades to go from ST 1.1 to ST 1.5.10 have been posted in comp.os.minix. If you want to upgrade you can use the posted upgrades (although this is not trivial). As an alternative you can buy ST 1.5 from Prentice Hall. It will be available late summer, and will consist of 10 disks and a 750 or 800 page manual. I do not know the exact availability or price, so please dont ask. watch comp.os.minix for the announcement. To conclude: late summer will bring 1.5 versions of minix for PC, ST, Amiga, Macintosh and I believe some PS/2 systems. If you do have ST 1.1 and you want to upgrade you have 2 options: - wait until summer and buy ST 1.5. You might get a discount if you have bought 1.1. I'm not sure though - upgrade using the posted diffs The fact that the diffs are posted, while you cannot get the stuff from PH yet, is that PH needs time to manufacture disks, print the manual etc. Also the net postings serve two purposes - to be a service to the minix community (which other product offers you upgrades over the net?) - to get feedback about new releases before they are shipped, so we can make a better system. So the knife really cuts at two sides: we get early bug repots, and you can upgrade early. happy minixing, -- Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.philips.nl) Centre for Software Technology ( or try: ...!mcsun!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr)
darius@isa.uucp (Darius S. Naqvi) (06/09/90)
H In article <SCOTT.90Jun5125240@croaker.cs.odu.edu> scott@cs.odu.edu (Scott Yelich) writes: > >I sent in my $80.00 and I received ST Minix 1.1. Version 1.1 is ok, >but I started reading comp.os.minix and I soon found out that it >wasn't the latest version. Not only that, but by the time I read an >article in comp.os.minix, a new version had come out. This has >repeated until now, I think... the current version is something like >1.5.10. Of course, there is no standard method of upgrading and from >what I can gather, there is no one place where you can pick up any >upgrades for say, from version 1.1 to 1.5.10. > >So, you can order your Minix now and you will probably get an old >version. I thought I heard talk of a new release 2.0 (or was it 2.1?) >for later this year. I sure hope Prentice Hall will accept the old >disks back as part of some sort of upgrade because I have not spent >the time to mess with 1.1 since the newer versions appear to be >sufficiently enhanced to the point where the old version would not be >worth the effort to maintain it. > What you are seeing in comp.os.minix is *free* upgrades to Minix which so far are available *only* to people who use USENET and are willing to patch and recompile the sources till their faces turn blue :-). The latest version on the net (1.5.10) is going to become the next version (1.5) released by Prentice-Hall this summer. If you wait until then, you can buy it (for about $140, if I recall the message that Andy Tanenbaum posted in comp.os.minix). It will also include a LOT more documentation than the ST1.1 version. As well, there are numerous sites that archive Minix stuff and make their archives available either by anonymous ftp or mail-servers. You're not stuck with the "old" version of Minix-ST unless you want to be. Also, another nice thing available from the net for the ST version of Minix (but not the PC version due to brain-dead segmented memory) is a C compiler with source. (The ACK compiler which comes with Minix-ST is the only part of Minix that doesn't include source). This C compiler (the one with source, that was posted to the net) apparently makes executables that are almost twice as fast as those produced by ACK. If you use this compiler and Minix-ST v1.5.10, you should have a nice, solid, fast system. >:( > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Scott D. Yelich scott@[xanth.]cs.odu.edu [128.82.8.1] > After he pushed me off the cliff, he asked me, as I fell, ``Why'd you jump?'' > Administrator of: Game design requests to <game-design-request@cs.odu.edu> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Darius S. Naqvi uucp: darius%isagate@uunet.uu.net ISA Corp. darius@isagate.isac.UUCP Edmonton, Alberta, Canada {uunet,alberta}!ncc!isagate!darius (403) 420-8081 or (403) 441-4121 Home: (403) 439-1444
jshekhel@feds19.prime.com (Jerry Shekhel ) (06/12/90)
In article <1990Jun9.130205.9282@isa.uucp> (Darius S. Naqvi) writes: > >As well, there are numerous sites that archive Minix stuff and make >their archives available either by anonymous ftp or mail-servers. >You're not stuck with the "old" version of Minix-ST unless you want to >be. Also, another nice thing available from the net for the ST version >of Minix (but not the PC version due to brain-dead segmented memory) >is a C compiler with source. (The ACK compiler which comes with >Minix-ST is the only part of Minix that doesn't include source). This >C compiler (the one with source, that was posted to the net) >apparently makes executables that are almost twice as fast as those >produced by ACK. If you use this compiler and Minix-ST v1.5.10, you >should have a nice, solid, fast system. ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ Nice? Yep. Ain't nothing like the GNU stuff, like GNU Emacs, gcc, etc. Solid? Nope, because processes can step on each other. One bad process can blow away the system. Also, Minix-ST does not support virtual memory, so space is limited to physical memory. The 68K, not Minix, is to blame here. Fast? Pretty reasonable for UNIX on an 8MHz machine. The biggest problem with Minix-ST is that because the 68000 does not support dynamic relocation, fork() is a hack, and a very expensive operation. This isn't too much of a problem, except if you're running something which forks a lot, like a shell script. I've had both Minix-PC and Minix-ST, and extracting files from shell archives was much slower on the ST than on the PC. One other thing: I'd wait for the official release of the new version. Upgrading via diffs and patches is A MAJOR PAIN; it can take weeks to set up a stable upgraded system. >-- >Darius S. Naqvi uucp: darius%isagate@uunet.uu.net -- Jerry