Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!hybrid!torag!utdoe!david
From: david@doe.utoronto.ca (David Megginson)
Subject: Re: UNIX on an ST?
Message-ID: <1991Apr18.112401.7780@doe.utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: david@doe.utoronto.ca (David Megginson)
Organization: Dictionary of Old English Project, University of Toronto
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1991 11:24:01 GMT


I use Minix on a Mega 2. It's quite a nice package, but it's not even
close to Xenix much less Unix. Minix is still really a hacker's toy,
not a complete OS, and you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time
on the net reading comp.os.minix and downloading patches, etc. (This
will change a bit when Advanced Minix is available for the ST).

The reason (or one of the reasons) that we don't have Unix on the ST
is that the 68000 is not really able to run it, because it has no
memory management. The 68020 or 68030 is quite capable, though. If
you REALLY want Unix with X-Windows, etc., here is what you will need:

1) Preferable at least 4 Megs RAM.
2) ca. 100 Megs HD space, JUST FOR THE OS
3) 100-200 Megs HD space if you want a full news feed
4) 25-50 Megs swap space for virtual memory.
5) Whatever you want for your own programs (you'll need 5-10 Megs just
   for emacs, for instance).

At the Dictionary of Old English, we have three regular programmers
using Unix with 1 Gigabyte of Hard Disk space, and we are so tight
for storage that we lost a chunk of incoming news last weekend, and
we are constantly moving stuff to tape (oh yeah, you'll want some
kind of tape drive...).

I personally would love to have Unix at home, but we should carefully
consider the implications first. You could probably get away with a
really stripped-down unix on 100 Megs, but forget about getting a news
feed, having more than one user, or porting any programs (you'll have
about 10 Megs free, depending on the setup). Also, forget about big
packages like X-Windows, emacs and TeX, much less Posix conformance.
The Unix that you would end up with is not the Unix that you use and
love at work.


-- 
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/  David Megginson                      david@doe.utoronto.ca          /
/  Centre for Medieval Studies          meggin@vm.epas.utoronto.ca     /
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////