Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!ispd-newsserver!kodak!uupsi!TALOS!jerry
From: jerry@talos.npri.com (Jerry Gitomer)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Questions about atari st & minix
Message-ID: <2043@talos.npri.com>
Date: 25 Apr 91 13:19:33 GMT
References: <1991Apr20.011418.28786@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Distribution: world
Organization: NPRI, Alexandria VA
Lines: 62

templon@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (jeffrey templon) writes:

|- I have minix running on the Mac at the moment - how does ST minix
|compare with Macminix?  I would think it would be faster, since mac
|minix has to run as an application rather than an OS.

	Looking at the bare hardware (forgetting the GUI) the ST has
	a slightly faster clock and a co-processor to handle some of
	the stuff the MAC does in the 68K.  As a result the ST is faster.
	Even when running an ST with GCR (the MAC emulation cartridge from
	Gadgets by Small) the ST will outperform a MAC running the same
	programs!

	I have no minix specific experience with the MAC, but I am sure
	it will run faster since on the ST minix takes over the whole 
	machine.

|- what is the native ST interface like (not minix, but this GEM thingy)
|compared to the Mac?

	GEM on the ST looks a lot like MS Windows on the PC.  (In fact
	Microsoft sued Digital Research [the developers of GEM] and made
	them change the interface away from that used on the ST and the
	early PC versions of GEM.

	Of course you don't have to use GEM if you don't like it.  It is
	possible to get command line interfaces.  (The one most often 
	recommended is GULAM -- which is shareware).

|- what is the minimum configuration I'll likely be able to get away with?
|I am eyeing starting out with a 520 - 512k and a monochrome monitor,
|with some sort of HD.  I am used to having 2.5 Meg of RAM and 60 Meg
|HD on my Mac.  It seems like Atari stuff should need less space from
|what I have heard.

	Well, you *can* load minix in a 512KB ST, but you can't run very
	much -- including some of the more commands such as ls.  I did
	some checking and since I plan to use GCC rather than the ACK
	"C" compiler I expanded memory to 2.5MB.  I definitely would go
	with 2.5MB or more. 

|say that the Mac and I have to part for technical reasons!  i have
|thought about getting one of the new macs (the LC, say) but this
|seems a little dumb when there are these ST's selling for well under
|$1000, especially the used ones.

	If I were buying a used ST I would buy a 1040 and I would make sure
	that the memory chips were socketed.  The 1040 because you can
	easily expand memory to 4MB as compared to 2.5 for most 520s.
	Socketed memory because soldering irons and I are mutually
	exclusive.

|Thanks for any email you might send.

	I tried to send you email, but it bounced.

				Jerry Gitomer

-- 
Jerry Gitomer at National Political Resources Inc, Alexandria, VA USA
I am apolitical, have no resources, and speak only for myself.
Ma Bell (703)683-9090  (UUCP:  ...uunet!uupsi!npri6!jerry )