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From: mwm@cuuxb.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: MINIX VS XINU
Message-ID: <1033@cuuxb.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Jan-87 16:58:19 EST
Article-I.D.: cuuxb.1033
Posted: Fri Jan 23 16:58:19 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Jan-87 10:44:00 EST
References: <3862@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Reply-To: mwm@cuuxb.UUCP (Marc W. Mengel)
Distribution: world
Organization: AT&T-IS, Software Support, Lisle IL
Lines: 31

In article <3862@sdcrdcf.UUCP> davem@sdcrdcf.UUCP (David Melman) writes:
>
>I'm curious how the goals and purpose of Comer's Xinu operating system
>(Operating System Design, the Xinu Approach) differ from Tanenbaum's Minix.
>
>A few things they do have in common are:
>	1) They both run on micros
>	2) They both are a rewritten simplification of Unix
>	3) They both are intended to be educational
>
>David Melman
	
	Wrong on 2).

	Xinu is NOT Unix. (X.I.N.U. -- get it?) Xinu is a smaller, simpler,
	multitasking operating system used to teach operating system 
	concepts.  A Unix-like interface could be layered onto Xinu, but
	it has not (to my knowledge) been done.  So you cannot take a
	random Unix program and compile the code and run it under Xinu.

	It would seem to me that one might want, when teaching about
	operating systems, want to go through both systems -- Comer's
	because it is easy to understand and play with, and then 
	Tannenbaum's because it provides many features that Xinu does
	not. (for example, Xinu provides no multi-user facilities like
	user-id's, file ownership, etc.)


-- 
 Marc Mengel
 ...!ihnp4!cuuxb!mwm