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From: kim@amdahl.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Minix on Amiga ?
Message-ID: <17402@amdahl.amdahl.com>
Date: Sun, 1-Nov-87 01:41:41 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.17402
Posted: Sun Nov  1 01:41:41 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Nov-87 05:57:33 EST
References: <295@wmt.UUCP> <32453@sun.uucp> <1910@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu>
Organization: Amdahl Corporation,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Lines: 50
Keywords: Minix, Amiga, ACC.
Xref: mnetor comp.os.minix:1980 comp.sys.amiga:10307

In article <1910@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu>, page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes:
>
> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) wrote:
> >Why would you want to downgrade the OS of your machine?
>
> Some of us at ULowell started work on an Amiga port of MINIX,
> then realized just what Chuck said.  So we stopped the port.
>
> The only way MINIX would be worthwhile on the Amiga would be as
> one of Amiga's libraries/devices/subtasks, like the MS-DOS/Janus
> software.
>
> PS Kim, do you still have a group at Amdahl working on MINIX?

No, and for essentially the same reason.  Besides, there are so many new and
interesting things to do *with* the Amiga ...

I think the original appeal was largely due to the lure of having the source
to the OS in hand, so we could fix all the problems that had been frustrating
us with AmigaDOS (1.1), and add those sorely missing features like resource
tracking, csh, etc.

Well, we still don't have resource tracking, but 1.2 has proved to be alot
more robust, so it's less of an issue.  And the publically available utility
stuff has continued to improve the (dare I say it) "user friendliness" of
the machine to well below the pain threshold.  And too, there are various
"signals" from CBM that more improvements are coming that'll address some
of the remaining problems (file system performance, etc.)

So MINIX has really become a "why bother".  Also, I believe alot of people
expected MINIX to be much more than it is, and forgot what Andy's original
intent was (and still is, I'm sure) ... to provide a *reasonably* complete
system for use as an *educational tool* in the OS area.  There's a BIG
difference between doing this, and developing a system that's targeted for
real production use (issues like performance, error recovery, etc.)

Now I'd really like to see MINIX running in an AmigaDOS window, and with the
sources available, I'm sure I could learn alot about OS internals.  I do
hope that someone who's "thing" is OS internals does this ... on either
side of the "bridgecard".

/kim


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