From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Subject: Re: LINUX is obsolete
Date: 5 Feb 92 14:48:48 GMT
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
In article <6121@skye.ed.ac.uk> richard@aiai.UUCP (Richard Tobin) writes:
>If you wanted a full-featured Unix with paging, job-control, a window
>system and so on, would it be quicker to start from basic Minix and
>add the features, or to start from Linux and fix the 386-specific
>bits?
Another option that seems to be totally forgotten here is buy UNIX or a
clone. If you just want to USE the system, instead of hacking on its
internals, you don't need source code. Coherent is only $99, and there
are various true UNIX systems with more features for more money. For the
true hacker, not having source code is fatal, but for people who just
want a UNIX system, there are many alternatives (albeit not free).
Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vul.nl)
From: ajt@doc.ic.ac.uk (Tony Travis)
Subject: Re: LINUX is obsolete
Date: 6 Feb 92 02:17:13 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
> Another option that seems to be totally forgotten here is buy UNIX or a
> clone. If you just want to USE the system, instead of hacking on its
> internals, you don't need source code. Coherent is only $99, and there
> are various true UNIX systems with more features for more money. For the
> true hacker, not having source code is fatal, but for people who just
> want a UNIX system, there are many alternatives (albeit not free).
Andy, I have followed the development of Minix since the first messages
were posted to this group and I am now running 1.5.10 with Bruce
Evans's patches for the 386.
I 'just' want a Unix on my PC and I am not interested in hacking on its
internals, but I *do* want the source code!
An important principle underlying the success and popularity of Unix is
the philosophy of building on the work of others.
This philosophy relies upon the availability of the source code in
order that it can be examined, modified and re-used in new software.
Many years ago, I was in the happy position of being an AT&T Seventh
Edition Unix source licencee but, even then, I saw your decision to
make the source of Minix available as liberation from the shackles of
AT&T copyright!!
I think you may sometimes forget that your 'hobby' has had a profound
effect on the availability of 'personal' Unix (ie. affordable Unix) and
that the 8086 PC I ran Minix 1.2 on actually cost me considerably more
than my present 386/SX clone.
Clearly, Minix _cannot_ be all things to all men, but I see the
progress to 386 versions in much the same way that I see 68000 or other
linear address space architectures: it is a good thing for people like
me who use Minix and feel constrained by the segmented architecture of
the PC version for applications.
NOTHING you can say would convince me that I should use Coherent ...
Tony
From: richard@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin)
Subject: Re: LINUX is obsolete
Date: 7 Feb 92 14:58:22 GMT
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
In article <12696@star.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
>If you just want to USE the system, instead of hacking on its
>internals, you don't need source code.
Unfortunately hacking on the internals is just what many of us want
the system for... You'll be rid of most of us when BSD-detox or GNU
comes out, which should happen in the next few months (yeah, right).
-- Richard
From: comm121@unixg.ubc.ca (Louie)
Subject: Re: LINUX is obsolete
Date: 30 Jan 92 02:55:22 GMT
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
In <12595@star.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
>But in all honesty, I would
>suggest that people who want a **MODERN** "free" OS look around for a
>microkernel-based, portable OS, like maybe GNU or something like that.
There are really no other alternatives other than Linux for people like
me who want a "free" OS. Considering that the majority of people who
would use a "free" OS use the 386, portability is really not all that
big of a concern. If I had a Sparc I would use Solaris.
As it stands, I installed Linux with gcc, emacs 18.57, kermit and all of the
GNU utilities without any trouble at all. No need to apply patches. I
just followed the installation instructions. I can't get an OS like
this *anywhere* for the price to do my Computer Science homework. And
it seems like network support and then X-Windows will be ported to Linux
well before Minix. This is something that would be really useful. In my
opinion, portability of standard Unix software is important also.
I know that the design using a monolithic system is not as good as the
microkernel. But for the short term future (And I know I won't/can't
be uprading from my 386), Linux suits me perfectly.
Philip Wu
pwu@unixg.ubc.ca
