Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!daver!cs.wwu.EDU!phil@cs.wwu.EDU From: phil@cs.wwu.EDU (Phil Nelson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k Subject: Is MINIX on the PC532 dead? Message-ID: <9106130949.AA08656@strawberry.cs.wwu.edu> Date: 13 Jun 91 09:49:36 GMT References: Sender: news@daver.bungi.com (Network News) Reply-To: phil@cs.wwu.edu Organization: Association for the Prevention of Polar Bears and Kangaroos Lines: 32 >Myself, I've pretty much settled on Mach for my future, but >Minix is still the only game in town for most, so it seems like >there ought to be SOME interest out there.. What gives? I don't >like to see things just fade away like this, yet I don't want to >jump in and start swinging away if someone else is already hot >on it. I agree that Mach and Hurd may be the way to go in the future, but I'm sure that Minix is not dead yet. Bruce C and I have been talking about completing the port of the 1.5 kernel. I've also 1.6.16 diffs on my pc532 and will start looking at them. It may be possible to upgrade fs and mm without having a full 1.5 kernel. It would be easier to have a full 1.5 kernel before attempting 1.6.16. I was thinking about one possible problem. AST has not distributed any diffs for the library. (/usr/src/lib/*) The reason (as I remember it) was that the library is part of the "new ANSI compiler" for the PC. That made me wonder if the library would be under the much more restrictive distribution along with the compiler. ($$$ for source.... $1000 for the full ack if you are an college/university, $10,000 for any one else.) I hope not, but I'm afraid that it will happen which makes minix of much less use. It might also make it illegal to distribute patches to the current library to make them look like the new library. I plan to ask this question about library source on comp.os.minix. Well, I'm way off the original topic. No, I don't see Minix dead on the pc532 yet. Development has "stalled" due to having a relative stable 1.5h and the ski season and some work on other software. I expect to see work resume soon on a 1.5 kernel and on 1.6.16. --Phil