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From: ron@brl-sem.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: MINIX VS XINU
Message-ID: <599@brl-sem.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 26-Jan-87 13:38:15 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-sem.599
Posted: Mon Jan 26 13:38:15 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Jan-87 19:04:14 EST
References: <3862@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Distribution: world
Organization: Electronic Brain Research Lab
Lines: 21

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
> 
I'll add a few more
	4) The source to both are available from Prentice-Hall.

The main advantage to MINIX, I see, is that it comes ready to fly and
experiment on an IBM-PC, which most people have or can get a hold of.
XINU is for the PDP-11, which are becoming scarce, and have never been
dirt cheap.  Also, I believe, that you really have to have a PDP-11
development environment (read C compiler) to run it, while MINIX has
the binaries for the PC one on the disks.

-Ron