http://www.osnews.com/story/12381/MINIX_3_0_Released Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:16:21 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/thread?50490 http://osnews.com/thread?50490 The bzip/IDE download seems to be corrupted though. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Luke McCarthy) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50493 http://osnews.com/thread?50493 Is it compatible with something else? Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50494 http://osnews.com/thread?50494 Maybe not, I must've just had a bad download Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Luke McCarthy) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50495 http://osnews.com/thread?50495 X Window System, you ignorant. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50500 http://osnews.com/thread?50500 It's noticed like that on Tanenbaum 's website Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50501 http://osnews.com/thread?50501 > Well, because MINIX, in combination with Andy Tanenbaum's
> books on operating system design, was the blueprint for what
> later would become the biggest free and open source operating
> system of the world-- yes, Linux

Linux was never based on Minix's code. The author may want to
clarify this statement. We do not want another FUD wave like the
one ADTI started. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50503 http://osnews.com/thread?50503 Linux was never based on Minix's code.

I know. Where did I state otherwise? "Was a blueprint" does not mean "based on". Fact remains that MINIX and the book served a great and important inspiration for Linus. And that should not be left unmentioned.

More info on that here:

http://www.minix3.org/doc/faq.html#legal Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom_Holwerda) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50507 http://osnews.com/thread?50507 damn that's an ugly logo Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50510 http://osnews.com/thread?50510 ...to my uni days. Used to spend ages playing with the MINIX source. Might have to download for old times' sake. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50511 http://osnews.com/thread?50511 I think its better if Minix, for desktop users, does have a DirectFB implementation under the Desktop Environment, instead of X server. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Tanner) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50513 http://osnews.com/thread?50513 I would even go as far as saying that "bluprint" is an overstatement. Not a small one at that. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50515 http://osnews.com/thread?50515 Yeah, my browser download cut out suddenly with no warning at about 90%. Using wget now instead. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 12:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Brian) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50521 http://osnews.com/thread?50521 "I would even go as far as saying that "bluprint" is an overstatement. Not a small one at that."

...and you would still be wrong. Do your homework before posting stupidities. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 12:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50525 http://osnews.com/thread?50525 Obligatory begging for some screenies! Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50527 http://osnews.com/thread?50527 Wanna have a screenie of a shell prompt? :-D Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Temcat) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50528 http://osnews.com/thread?50528 Obligatory begging for some screenies!

In Windows:

Start => Run... => "cmd.exe" => Full screen.

In Linux/GNOME:

Applications => System tools => Terminal => Full screen.

In Linux/KDE:

K => System tools => Terminal => Full screen.

In OSX Tiger:

[Apple]+[Space] => "Terminal" => Select Terminal from results => Full screen.

There, screenshots of MINIX . Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom_Holwerda) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50529 http://osnews.com/thread?50529 OMG TORRENT PLS!!!1122 Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50534 http://osnews.com/thread?50534 The MINIX license [ http://www.minix3.org/license.html ] is (a slightly modified version of) the Modified BSD License [ http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#ModifiedBSD ] (i.e. without the advertising clause), so it should be compatible with pretty much everything, including the GPL. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (zerblat) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50542 http://osnews.com/thread?50542 Ah.. I used Minix to do my C programing at home during college.

In fact, I started using Linux in 1994 because of the buzz in the Minix community about it....funny to think that many people think an OS I have been using for more than a decade now is "NEW". Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50547 http://osnews.com/thread?50547 Since some people have such a poor imagination.. Screenshots!

http://80.237.144.96/~christian/minix_311-screens/ Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50552 http://osnews.com/thread?50552 I was a bit surprised that Minix is still being developed. But this is good since Minix has been perceived to be the practical starting ground for microkernels.

However looking at the Minix website I miss some documentation regarding Minix's real-time capabilities. Does Minix do _hard_ real-time? And what is it's basic scheduling mechanisms?

If it's capable of doing hard real-time this would be great news for the embedded world for many purposes.

Linux in its current shape will not make it in embedded systems due to its lack of support for HRT. Maybe Minix is the way to go?

What is needed today is an implementation of a microkernel which implements HRT support and also support all the wonderfull applications of the GNU/Linux world. This would rock both the desktop/server world and the embedded world for sure. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50561 http://osnews.com/thread?50561 Seems Tanenbaum will provide extensive documentation in the 900pp. book on Operating Systems concepts which uses Minix3 as an example, and comes out 5 days before Christmas.

Hmm, I wonder if I can afford the hobby... Mon, 24 Oct 2005 15:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (morganth) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50563 http://osnews.com/thread?50563 I remember reading that Timesys had hard realtime patches for the Linux kernel at 2.4. When I was researching RTOSs they sent me a bunch of documentation on it and explanations about the architecture. It was pretty interesting, though I never actually downloaded their patches and looked at them. It was a good overview of what real-time systems do though. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 15:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50575 http://osnews.com/thread?50575 I seldom reply to these things, but when I saw the word "blueprint" I thought the exact same thing. Google "define:blueprint" and you will see words like "plan", "guide", "design", and "template". Sounds like it means "based on" to me! "Inspiration", on the other hand, seems like an appropriate term, and my suggestion would be to update the article accordingly.

By the way, I have read both "Just for Fun" (Torvalds book as well as book on CD) and Tanenbaum's OS book, 2nd edition. I was also inspired by the book to write my own little OS kernel, but Minix was certainly not a blueprint. So before anybody accuses me of not "doing my homework" or some nonsense, be aware of that. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 16:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50578 http://osnews.com/thread?50578 If anything could be called a blueprint for Linux it would be the POSIX standard.

I've done my homework by reading "Linus Torvalds - Just for fun" about two years ago and I just flipped through it again. What homework have you done? Mon, 24 Oct 2005 16:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50657 http://osnews.com/thread?50657 > Linux was never based on Minix's code. The author may want to
> clarify this statement. We do not want another FUD wave like the
> one ADTI started.

Ahh yes FUD. Thanks anonymous for actually creating FUD where it did not exist in its meaning. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:05:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (libray) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50705 http://osnews.com/thread?50705 > What is needed today is an implementation of a microkernel which implements HRT support and also support all the wonderfull applications of the GNU/Linux world. This would rock both the desktop/server world and the embedded world for sure.

What is the point of a real-time OS for desktop or server use? Desktop and server users want throughput, they do not care about real-time...

Anyway, this is great news but unfortunately the website is 503 for the moment... Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (corentin) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50814 http://osnews.com/thread?50814 slick~n~glossy! Tue, 25 Oct 2005 01:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50868 http://osnews.com/thread?50868 Had you released this 15 years back, Linus would not have come out with Linux. Linux is usable, now why do we want a great educational OS to be practically usable? Stick to the goal of a good text book OS please. Tue, 25 Oct 2005 05:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50874 http://osnews.com/thread?50874 I think blueprint is an overstatement.
Minix gave some teaching and inspiration to the programmers of Linux may be towards a more accurate statement. Tue, 25 Oct 2005 06:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nii_) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?50875 http://osnews.com/thread?50875 "Linus Torvalds, then a student at the University of Helsinki, studied MINIX in an operating systems course and was sufficiently impressed that he bought a PC to run it."

So, that implies he was running the Minix code in his mind by reading the source before he decided to run it on a PC? I wonder how many Bogomips he was getting before he got his PC to run it faster for him? Tue, 25 Oct 2005 07:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nii_) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?51220 http://osnews.com/thread?51220 I don't see the big deal about Thom's statement. Linux starting using Minix, and its modification became Linux. Thus, there's no doubt Minix was the launching vehicle for Linux. Heck, the first Linux filesystem was the Minix filesystem. Having said that, Linux became something else at the end of all, and they are both different animals. But if Minix had not existed, possibly we would not have Linux today, and credit should be due where is due! Tue, 25 Oct 2005 23:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?51224 http://osnews.com/thread?51224 BTW, I helped test Minix3 for throughout the Summer on VMware, and I have to say that it runs awesome on it. It's actually a breeze to install and run on VMware and pretty much any other platform.

After the basic install, which is way easier than before (no diskettes needed), you end up with a workable system. In the case of VMWare, you won't need to even enable (DHCP) networking, as it is up and running by default.

Andy Tanenbaum was working with a few fulltime coders, particular Ben Gras, who did an incredible job.

For example, the driver for the network card on VMware had not been ported/updated for Minix3, and they were nice enough to help me (and everyone else at this point) with that.

A couple of biggies with regards to Minix3 are the following:

-The install is easier than ever before, and faster too. There's no need to deal with 'part' (similar to fdisk, but kind of more complicated)
-Although it still has the requirement of at least two main partitions (root [boot monitor] and user), there's no need to hit '=' or anything else while booting. The exception is the ability to choose memory size before booting.
-cleaner code and many system updates (checkout the book when it comes out)
-gcc: It had been ported years ago, but it was not working; now it is.
-More updated network nic drivers than ever.
-A bunch of applications were ported and work from the start. Note that Minix does not have the 'less' command, as 'more' in Minix does the same thing.

My only complain is that I would love to see the Boot Monitor to go away for good, but that's something small in whole deal... Tue, 25 Oct 2005 23:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?51250 http://osnews.com/thread?51250 What's the deal with the 75 MB 3.1 .iso (link dead) on the previous versions versus the 10 MB 3.1.1 .iso (link active) on the download page? Was the 75 MB image the one from the book?

http://www.minix3.org/previous-versions/index.html
http://www.minix3.org/download/ Wed, 26 Oct 2005 01:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (DigitalAxis) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?51266 http://osnews.com/thread?51266 I think with earlier releases for a small group of testers that no effort was made to zero out unused blocks in the CD image. Wed, 26 Oct 2005 03:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?51548 http://osnews.com/thread?51548 Taken horribly out of context but interesting to note.

From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Subject: Re: LINUX is obsolete
Date: 29 Jan 92 23:14:26 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

"True, linux is monolithic, and I agree that microkernels are nicer. With
a less argumentative subject, I'd probably have agreed with most of what
you said. From a theoretical (and aesthetical) standpoint linux looses.
If the GNU kernel had been ready last spring, I'd not have bothered to
even start my project: the fact is that it wasn't and still isn't."

From:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/appa.html Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Lazarus) Comments