Xref: utzoo comp.os.xinu:68 comp.os.minix:2812
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!tness7!tness1!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.os.xinu,comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: 68k Minix
Message-ID: <2053@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 22 May 88 23:37:08 GMT
References: <8805101934.AA04927@merlin.cs.purdue.edu>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 41

In article ... comer@PURDUE.EDU.UUCP (presumably Douglas Comer) writes:
>   >>	Would some soul(s) *EMAIL* me a brief rundown on comparative features of
>   >>	Minix and Xinu?  How do their models differ?  Their interprocess
>   >>	communication?  Performance on normal applications?  Completeness of
>   >>	the standard unix tool sets?

> Briefly, Minix is a minature version 7 (circa 1978) UNIX system; Xinu is an
> entirely new, hierarchically structures operating system with only small
> resemblence to UNIX internally.

Minix is a message-passing operating system that has little resemblance
to UNIX internally. The external interface is modelled on Version 7 UNIX.
The internal model is similar to the ADA "Rendezvous". I personally don't
care for this, as it doesn't give you the performance of raw coroutines and
doesn't give you the security of a queued-message system, but saying it's
similar to UNIX is just not true.

> They don't even attempt to do the same things.

They seem to have similar design goals to me. They're both toy operating
systems for teaching purposes.

> Xinu tries to illustrate new operating system
> concepts including networking protocols. Minix

... tries to provide a small operating system to
teach operating system concepts.

> Minix runs on PCs;
> Xinu runs on PCs, Vaxen, PDP11s, SUNs, National 32000s, etc.  Go to your
> library and look at the two texts.

Good idea.

I know you're fond of your baby, and I think it's a really neat system
too. I just think that you're being a little quick to dismiss Minix as
just a UNIX clone.
-- 
-- Peter da Silva      `-_-'      ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- "Have you hugged your U wolf today?" ...!bellcore!tness1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These may be the official opinions of Hackercorp.