Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!ugkamins
From: ugkamins@sunybcs.uucp (John Kaminski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Amigix
Summary: maybe better than Amigix or UNIX
Keywords: UNIX Amigix OS Operating Systems MINIX
Message-ID: <5121@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 9 Apr 89 05:13:09 GMT
Sender: nobody@cs.Buffalo.EDU
Reply-To: ugkamins@sunybcs.UUCP (John Kaminski)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 26

I subscribe to comp.os.minix, which is about MINIX, a V7 UNIX-like operating
system that was originally developed on an IBM-PC then ported to the Atari-ST
series of computers.  I have received email stating that an Amiga port was
underway, and may possibly be available by year's end.

MINIX is for the most part source code compatible with many UNIX varieties,
of which V7 is the definitive base.  The main difference is in the implemen-
tation of the interal workings.  The "better" difference is that the MINIX
"project" was started as a teaching/learning tool on operating systems (much
as Pascal was intended to be a teaching programming language) and therefore
is distributed with FULL SOURCE CODE for everything EXCEPT the C compiler.

For the definitive reference on MINIX consult (search for at a library or go
buy) the Prentice-Hall publication

Operating Systems: Design And Implementation
Andrew S. Tanenbaum
ISBN 0-13-637406-9

This includes the source code listing for the MINIX system including all but
some of the device drivers (most notably the printer and hard disk
drivers).

Andy is THE best computer writer I know.  Not only does he seem rather
knowlegeable (sp?) but he is *EXCELLENT* at expressing what he is writing
about.