[comp.os.minix] YAMN

norm@hpfcdq.HP.COM (Norm Gee) (06/15/90)

No doubt most of you are tired of posts such as this, but please forgive 
the ignorance of a neophyte (me) as he attempts to climb the latter into
the MINIX world.

Very recently, I heard about MINIX from a friend, and (being interested 
lately in learning about OS internals), I picked up the "Operating Systems -
Design and Implementation" text by Dr. Tanenbaum.  This is the kind of OS 
class I wish I could have taken in school, but since its a bit late for that,
I get to do it on my own :-)

I have an IBM PSII model 80  (80386 processor), that has a single 3.5" floppy
disk drive and a reasonably large hard disk.  The questions I have for
this group are the following:  (hopefully someone can help me or point me
to the right place to ask)

1) Does MINIX run well on IBM '386 machines?

2) I understand from other MINIX users that although not freely
distributable, a limited number of copies of the disks can be made. 
Is this correct?

3) If I were to look at a recent version of MINIX, how closely would it still
resemble what is discussed in Dr. Tanenbaum's text?  (The one I have was 
published in 1987)


I would greatly appreciate any help or advice in getting started.

Thanks in advance,

Norman Gee

norm@hpfcdq.hp.com