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From: mmdf@udel.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Minix on Amiga ?
Message-ID: <660@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: Mon, 2-Nov-87 03:23:29 EST
Article-I.D.: louie.660
Posted: Mon Nov  2 03:23:29 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Nov-87 04:03:17 EST
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 23

Chuck, it's certain that the Amiga Exec is a nice bunch of O/S goodies - a
useful port of MINIX to it probably runs MINIX as a task under it, with
essentially translation from MINIX "syntax" to that of EXEC, the semantics
being freely translatable as far as i can see... Two thing come to mind as
a use - 1). Exec really is written as a single-user, single-machine system,
although it probably isn't limited to that context; MINIX, on the other hand
seems more directly constructed with an eye towards distributed function. In
practice this means running part of in in other Amigas, or more reasonably, in
communication with its counterpart on a BridgeCard or Sidecar... 2). MINIX
at a higher-level interface *is* UNIX(r), so all the "terror & joy" of
application interchange (read "porting") is thereby cheaply extended to the
Amiga. A potential corollary of this is the notion that the wonderful Intuition
interface be, in some form, backfitted into new forms of Unix/MINIX, a la
the Display Managemant standardization efforts going on at ANSI, etc... In
practice I suppose this means that Intuition gets "replaced" in the future
as well.
I'm sure there are some other reasons why a MINIX port to the Amiga is a good
notion, like remote file systems that really work (sidecar software has never
worked properly for example), and a software base that isn't beholden to
the vagaries of internal politics at Commodore...

Hope this is a useful answer to your question -
Bruce Becker       Humber College       Etobicoke, Ont.