Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!gatech!prism!loligo!nall
From: nall@loligo (John Nall)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re**n:  Future of Minix
Message-ID: <194@loligo.cc.fsu.edu>
Date: 11 Jul 89 10:54:01 GMT
Sender: nall@loligo.cc.fsu.edu
Reply-To: nall@nu.cs.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Organization: Florida State University
Lines: 37

Andy writes (paraphrased, of course....)
>  I expect Minix 2.0 to be out around 1991....by then hard disks
>  will be cheap and everyone will have one...

I suppose in general that is a good decision.  I'm running Bruce Evans'
protected mode Minix on my Jameco AT-clone, and it is a joy to use.  I'm
not at all sure that I'm going to be able to talk my administration into
swapping out the pc's in the lab for at's, but then I don't have to throw
away the version 1.3 that I have, either.

A couple of comments, however.  Bruce points out that the Amoeba networking
code does NOT run on Minix286.  Will official Minix286 have some form of
networking?  I suspect that by 1991 ethernet boards will also be cheap, and
everyone will have one (at least within universities).  Also, although many
fortunes have been lost on trying to predict where technology is going, it
is probably safe to say that not only will hard disks be cheap and everyone
will have one, but that large capacity disks will be more prevalent.  I
doubt that it is beyond the realm of possibility that a 386 system, with
16 mb's of memory will be able to use something like a Control Data
Sabre V disk (1 gigabyte -- we can buy them at $7500 per drive today).
Will Minix286 support arbitrarily large disk farms?

Of course, by making such a decision, Andy is conciously saying that Minix
is going to be a real operating system, instead of a teaching tool.  So
it should be a lot of fun to watch it compete with the big guys.....

On the textbook, by the way, let me suggest that the source code listing,
user guide, implementor's guide, etc., be issued as a separate, optional,
document.  It could even be paperback.  Trying to get through just the
theory in one semester is tough, and I just use the second half of the book
as a reference manual anyway.  And people who don't dig the theory can
just buy the reference manual and (dare I say it?) get the password.

John Nall
Computer Science Department
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
(nall@nu.cs.fsu.edu  Arpa/Internet)