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From: grr@cbmvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Some thoughts
Message-ID: <1324@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 31-Jan-87 21:15:36 EST
Article-I.D.: cbmvax.1324
Posted: Sat Jan 31 21:15:36 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Feb-87 05:45:27 EST
References: <17128@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 39
Keywords: AmigaDOS, MINIX, UNIX, GNU

In article <17128@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> robinson@shadow.berkeley.edu (Mike Robinson) writes:
>
>So my idea, the point of all this, is to make AmigaDOS look like UNIX.  If
>MINIX can look like UNIX, there should be no real reason why AmigaDOS can't.
>If this were done, one would have all the advantages of MINIX (except source
>to the kernel), without all the disadvantages.  Unix and AmigaDOS software
>living and running side-by-side in the same environment.
>
>It seems to me that the only thing necessary for a UNIX environment on the
>Amiga, that is even more free than MINIX, is a (loosely) organized and
>(loosely) coordinated effort to duplicate the environment, with duplication
>as the explicit goal.
>
>Mike Robinson                                 USENET:  ucbvax!ernie!robinson

Q. What's the best way to turn your Amiga into a dumb terminal emulator?
A. Do a port of a standard operating system. (OS/9, Unix, MINIX...)

I've been watching the interest in porting first OS/9 and now MINIX to the
Amiga (and ST).  Either port would be fine, but you soon run into a problem
that neither operating system does anything special with the machine.  You
get a multi-tasking CLI, zip.  Now this is fine for a developement system,
but developing applications under one system, then booting another to run
them is a big pain.

Porting standard unix tools to the Amiga may be a good alternative, but why
start from scratch?  Perhaps the MINIX utilities can be ported to AmigaDos
with a reasonable amount of effort?  Arrangements could probably be made to
package an Amiga subset of Minix for no more than the whole system...

The GNU people have PD "unix" source as a long range goal, but they have
gotten bogged down in the hard parts, and haven't gotten to the easy stuff
yet.  Perhaps MINIX is an can provide a more timely source for this stuff
and also get a lot of people working on PD implementations of the missing
pieces...
-- 
George Robbins - now working for,	uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing	arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV
Commodore, Engineering Department	fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)