Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!udel!mmdf
From: HELMER%SDNET.BITNET@vm1.nodak.edu (Guy Helmer)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Bruce Evans' opus
Message-ID: <16497@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 30 May 89 14:06:57 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 50

>In article <2570@ast.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
>>
>>Bruce Evans has clearly done a great deal of high quality work in his recent
>>giant posting and I am sure many people are interested in it.  Furthermore,
>>I hate to be a party pooper, but...
>>
>>According to P-H's sales figures, the PC version of MINIX is still outselling
>>the AT version by a wide margin.  This means that there are a lot of 8088s
>>still out there.  Consequently, I am going to base V2.x on 1.4a, not on
>Bruce's
>[some stuff deleted]
>
>I hate to be a party pooper too, but I find Bruce Evan's postings what PC
>Minix needs to move into the larger world of the 386. I find it interesting
>you base your figures on P-H's sales figures, without qualifying who is
>really buying Minix. It would be interesting to see what systems at major
>universities are running Minix. I have found that the majority of systems
>in U.S. universities are donated ATs, with the switch to 386 AT architectured
>machines.

As a recent graduate with a B.S., I know for a fact that at least in all the
schools I've seen, AT machines are rare.  A small Minix based on the 8088
is necessary if undergrad classes are to be taught based on Minix.

>                                            I find your reasoning why
>Bruce Evan's work will cause a split to be flawed and technically
>imcompetent. I support Evan's work and will do whatever I can to add
>to the existing body of PM Minix code. As a matter of perspective one
>of our local Minix group here in Orlando, Florida ,Jim Smith, has stated
>that he had the least number of problems and glitches patching his version
>of Minix with Evan's posting. It has been one of the easiest, if not
>the easiest.

I agree that Bruce's improvements in interrupt handling are useful and should
be included in Dr. Tannenbaum's Minix.  I do not believe that Dr. Tannenbaum
should be asked to include protected mode support in Minix.  Real Minix is
a teaching operating system.  What Bruce's changes do is create a Minix
that is not longer the small teaching system but a step towards a Minix that
could be used in place of commercially marketed un*x.

>I'm sorry for the tone of my message, but Minix is far larger than you
>apparently realize. I would strongly recommend you do more research
>and deeper thinking about Minix's future path.

I believe that Dr. Tannenbaum has Minix on the correct path.  The network
is presently creating a new version of Minix, one that the network will
have to support by itself.

-- Guy Helmer
   Opinions are mine, all mine.