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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cuae2!ihnp4!chinet!steinmetz!davidsen
From: davidsen@steinmetz.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: MINIX extensions
Message-ID: <1169@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Jan-87 12:05:30 EST
Article-I.D.: steinmet.1169
Posted: Fri Jan 30 12:05:30 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Jan-87 23:36:13 EST
References: <252@hqda-ai.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidsen@kbsvax.UUCP (william E Davidsen)
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 120
Keywords: shared swapped bernoulli jobs

In article <252@hqda-ai.UUCP> merlin@hqda-ai.UUCP (David S. Hayes) writes:
>
>1. Device driver for the IOMEGA Bernoulli Box:
>
Great!

>
>2. Provide a way to format disks without going into MS-DOS.
>
The ROM firmware has a format entry via software interrupt. You can use
that for a starting place.
>
>3. Share program text
>
>     I see no reason why the same program should have to be loaded
>multiple times.  The code segment is assumed to be read-only.  I
>know there's no hardware protection for this, but in general I
>think it's a safe bet, and it would free up memory.  Memory seems
>to be the limiting factor in MINIX.

If you allocate a full 64k to data, there is hardware protection: you
can't address more than that. This assures that any program which
doesn't deliberately set out to cause problems will not modify the
code. At the moment it looks as if the model used is code+data in one
64k lump. That precludes sharing. Hopefully this limitation will be
fixed.
>
>4. Swap processes
> ... discussion trimmed ...
>
>5. Provide SIGSTOP/SIGTSTP and job control, ala 4.xBSD
>
After using virtual terminals ala Xenix and Microport, you will be more
willing to forego job control (it's still useful).
> ... some trimmed ...
>
>     Why bother with all this?  Why not just buy Sys-V for the PC?
>BECAUSE I WANT THE SOURCE, AND I DON'T LIKE AT&T.  Also, I intend
			^		^
    technical reason ---|		|--- your privilege
>to run uucp mail and usenet news on this beast, and it'll need all
>the help it can get.

Why? Those things seem to run just fine under Microport ($160) with no
source, tricks, fiddling, etc.

Summary: MINIX is a great system, and will be lots of fun to play with.
It is not a candidate to replace UNIX in most places because most people
don't know how to tinker with an o/s, and those of us who do have no
desire to do it for fun. Therefore, I see no reason to run down UNIX
because you don't like AT&T, MINIX is a solution to another problem.
































































-- 
bill davidsen			sixhub \
      ihnp4!seismo!rochester!steinmetz ->  crdos1!davidsen
				chinet /
ARPA: davidsen%crdos1.uucp@crd.ge.com (or davidsen@crd.ge.com)