Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!ria!uwovax.uwo.ca!7103_2622
From: 7103_2622@uwovax.uwo.ca (Eric Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: RE: a few questions.
Message-ID: <1991Mar1.172343.8722@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Date: 1 Mar 91 22:23:43 GMT
References: <46263@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Lines: 20

In article <46263@nigel.ee.udel.edu>, CRAWFORD_B%PLU.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu (brian) writes:
> Me too.  I can't afford it, but as a poor student, I would still like to get
> ahold of a copy of it (I have an Atari ST).  I know there is a demo available
> over FTP, but is the full system available over FTP?  Why does Minix, as
> a developmental OS cost so much ($169 in the message I saw)?

$169 is a very low price for ANY OS -- try shopping around someday and you'll
find out. For an OS with complete source code, it's an incredible bargain.

If you can't afford minix, you can get MiNT for the Atari ST for free. It's
not as Unix-like as minix, but it is (mostly) TOS compatible, which may or
may not be an advantage :-). Both the sources and binaries are available for
FTP from atari.archive.umich.edu (in the "mint" directory). Be forewarned:
you get what you pay for. The source code is no-where near as nicely formatted
and commented as minix's, and it's likely a lot buggier. (On the plus side,
it's a *lot* faster than minix, since there's no message passing going on).
-- 
Eric R. Smith                     email:
Dept. of Mathematics            eric.smith@uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario   7103_2622@uwovax.bitnet