Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 1st Mar 2007 22:49 UTC, submitted by _DoubleThink_
"MINIX is an operating system designed for 'resource limited' or embedded computer systems. Versions 1 and 2 were teaching operating systems upon which the famous book, Operating Systems Design and Implementation, by Andrew S Tanenbaum and Albert S Woodhull, is based and also was the inspiration for Linux. With this latest release, version 3, MINIX aims to be a complete, stable, secure desktop operating system for everyday use. Does it live up to those claims? Read on to find out."
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Member since:
2007-02-22
It's interesting to see it described here as a 'complete, stable, secure desktop operating system for everyday use.' As against that, in my copy of the author's book The Minix Book: Operating Systems, Design and Implementation, the author himself described Minix 3 as having been created mainly to teach the fundamentals of operating system design, which meant that design choices were made that sacrificed speed and stability but kept the code legible and understandable for the student. Having it here on live CD, and looking at the complete lack of software for it, I'd have to say it's closer to the latter.
Unfortunately, it's not that good as a teaching OS either. I haven't been able to learn much except some of the most fundamental theories from the book, as the sort of operating system that Minix 3 is (microkernel) has nothing to do with any serious commercial operating system, so I have learned nothing about how actual operating systems are structured.
Edited 2007-03-01 23:12