Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:26231 comp.sys.next:8624
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!vax1.sara.nl!toon
From: toon@vax1.sara.nl
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: MACH kernel - source become pd: OK, let's get started
Message-ID: <1990Oct15.114949.2561@vax1.sara.nl>
Date: 15 Oct 90 10:49:49 GMT
References: <450@dill.UUCP> <26980@mimsy.umd.edu> <1369@mtxinu.UUCP>
Organization: SARA, Academic Computing Services Amsterdam (NL)
Lines: 45

In article <1369@mtxinu.UUCP>, shore@mtxinu.COM (Melinda Shore) writes:
> In article <26980@mimsy.umd.edu> chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek) writes:
>>(Things look good; CMU already gives away Mach
>>for free.  The problem is that you must first show your AT&T source
>>license.)
> 
> And NFS and others.  AFS pulls out pretty easily if you don't want
> it or can't get a license, but the ufs filesystem is Sun vnode-based
> and (alas) doesn't come out as cleanly.  Drivers, math libraries,
> debuggers, etc. are also usually under somebody or other's license
> (different companies hold licenses for different platforms -
> representative companies include Sun, DEC, IBM, Prime).
> 
>>(a) CMU Mach != NeXT Mach;
> 
> Indeed.  NeXT Mach is based on Mach 2.0 (no external pagers, for
> starters) - we're shipping Mach 2.5 with extensions, and CMU is
> currently working on 3.0.  3.0 is the microkernel Mach, and the
> one most likely to become "free."
> 
> This question keeps coming up over and over.  It's going to be
> awhile before there is an entirely license-free Mach-based OS.
> Even when the microkernel becomes available and FSF provides a
> complete user-level environment, somebody will still need to
> provide drivers, filesystems, etc.  [Get to work :-)]
                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
OK, I don't mind getting to work (as soon as I have a decent
hardware platform to work on, i.e. my NeXT coming ... .-)
Can spend around two days a week on it. So just tell me who's
coordinating this stuff and I jump on the bandwagon.

A propos, I will accomplish this not as an employee of SARA, but
privately; that is: it's hard not to use 6 years of experience
in operating system internals (CDC, DEC VMS (4 years) and
UNICOS (few months)) but I won't COPY anything.

> -- 
> Melinda Shore                                 shore@mtxinu.com
> mt Xinu                              ..!uunet!mtxinu.com!shore
-- 

Toon Moene, SARA - Amsterdam (NL)
Internet: TOON@SARA.NL

Cyclists don't need a garage to start with.