Minix

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MINIX

This article is about the operating system in general. For specifically the system MINIX 3, see MINIX 3

MINIX is an open source, Unix-like operating system based on a microkernel architecture. Andrew S. Tanenbaum wrote the operating system to be used for educational purposes; MINIX also inspired the creation of Linux.

History

Andrew S. Tanenbaum created MINIX at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam to exemplify the principles conveyed in his textbook, Operating Systems: Design and Implementation (1987). An abridged 12,000 lines of source code of the kernel, memory manager, and file system are printed in the book. MINIX is written mostly in the C programming language.

Tanenbaum originally developed MINIX for compatibility with the IBM PC and IBM PC/AT microcomputers available at the time. MINIX version 1.5 was also ported to the Motorola 68000 CPU, which allowed compatibility with such popular computer platforms as Atari ST, Amiga, Apple Macintosh. There were also ports to the SPARC, National Semiconductor NS32532 and transputer processors. Demand for these architectures waned, however, and MINIX version 2.0 was once again only available for the x86 architecture. It was included with the second edition of Tanenbaum's textbook, co-written with Albert Woodhull.

Current status

MINIX version 3 was publicly announced on 24 October 2005 by Andrew Tanenbaum during his keynote speech at the ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles conference. Although it still serves as an example for the new edition of Tanenbaum and Woodhull's textbook, it is redesigned to be "usable as a serious system on resource-limited and embedded computers and for applications requiring high reliability." It is available in a LiveCD format that allows it to be used on a computer without installing it on the hard drive, and in versions compatible with hardware emulation/virtualization systems, including Bochs, Qemu, VMware, and Virtual PC.

Version 3.1.2 was released 8 May 2006. It contains X11, emacs, vi, cc, gcc, perl, python, ash, bash, zsh, ftp, ssh, telnet, pine, and over 400 other common UNIX utility programs. With the addition of X11, this version marks the transition away from a text-only system. Another feature of this version, which will be improved in future ones, is the ability of the system to withstand device driver crashes, and in many cases having them automatically replaced without affecting running processes. In this way, MINIX is self-healing and can be used in applications demanding high reliability. MINIX is available for free at www.MINIX3.org.

MINIX and Linux

The design principles Tanenbaum applied to MINIX famously influenced the design decisions Linus Torvalds applied in the creation of Linux. Torvalds used and appreciated MINIX, but his design deviated from the MINIX architecture in significant ways, most notably by employing a monolithic kernel instead of a microkernel. Tanenbaum explained his rationale for using a microkernel in May 2006.

Accusations of Linux being stolen from MINIX

In May 2004 Kenneth Brown of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution raised the accusation Alexis de Tocqueville Institution/Kenneth Brown, 'Samizdat's critics... Brown replies', http://www.adti.net/samizdat/brown.reply.june.04.html that major parts of the Linux-Kernel have been stolen from the MINIX codebase.

However; these accusation were rebutted universaly and in particular by Andrew S. Tannenbaum. Tannenbaum, Andrew S. 'Some Notes on the "Who wrote Linux" Kerfuffle', http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/brown/, Tannenbaum, Andrew S. 'MINIX 3 FAQ', http://www.MINIX3.org/doc/faq.html#legal

Licensing

At the time of its original development, the license for MINIX was considered to be rather liberal. Its licensing fee was very small ($69) compared to those of other operating systems. Although Tanenbaum wished for MINIX to be as accessible as possible to students, his publisher was not prepared to offer material (such as the source code) that could be copied freely, so a restrictive license requiring a nominal fee (included in the price of Tanenbaum's book) was applied as a compromise. This prevented the use of MINIX as the basis for a freely distributed software system, which led volunteer software developers to contribute to operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD instead. In April 2000, MINIX became open source under the BSD license, but by this time other operating systems had surpassed its capabilities, and it remained primarily an operating system for students and hobbyists.

Books

Tanenbaum, Andrew S.; Albert S. Woodhull. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation. Third Edition. Prentice Hall, 2006. ISBN 0-13-142938-8.
MINIX Wikibook

References

External links

MINIX3.org the official MINIX 3 Operating System site
MINIX1.woodhull.com (formerly MINIX1.hampshire.edu)
The MINIX category at the Open Directory Project
MINIX on laptops and PDAs
History of MINIX from Andrew Tanenbaum
Linus Torvalds and Andrew Tanenbaum argue about technologies in MINIX and Linux
MINIX under the BSD License
Source code for the MINIX system compiler
Russian site of MINIX 3 OS
comp.os.MINIX - the MINIX Usenet newsgroup

Unix Free software operating systems

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