Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!hybrid!chance!john
From: john@chance.UUCP (John R. MacMillan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: Re: Port of MINIX to Unix-PC
Keywords: AT&T-Unix/PC, 3B1, 7300
Message-ID: <1991Mar18.060855.4664@chance.UUCP>
Date: 18 Mar 91 06:08:55 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.054318.25699@chance.UUCP> <1991Mar15.130239.20389@cbnews.att.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Haphazard
Lines: 32

[ I've cut comp.os.minix out of this -- JRM ]

|while this is an interesting exercise, 

That's mostly why we're doing it.

|... i think minix is deficient in a
|few areas.  for instance, no future version of minix will ever have
|paging or swapping virtual memory; tanenbaum is actively opposed to
|including it.

He's not going to put it in the official distribution, because he
wants to keep the source similar and smaill on all platform, and wants
to support the lowest common denominator.  That doesn't mean we can't
add it to our port.

It makes for a more interesting exercise that way. :-)

|i'd be much more interested in a port of mach 3.0, or maybe amoeba...

Go ahead, I'd like to see them too. :-)

Both are probably a little on the large size for our little
machine, and neither of is terribly UNIX-ish, at their lowest
level.  The Mach micro-kernel is just micro by modern kernel
standards, and what's currently available doesn't include the UNIX
emulation (which also adds quite a bit to the size).  Plus mach is
just a kernel; no utilities.  Many are available from GNU, but that
makes for a lot more work.

As for various plans to enable us to get our grimy little mitts on the
UNIX PC source, I really hope they go well, but I'm not waiting.