Information AboutMinix |
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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 Tanenbaum created Minix at ). 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 Microcomputer s 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. 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 . 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 . Licensing At the time of its original development, the License for Minix was considered to be rather liberal; its licensing fee was very small compared to those of other operating systems. Although Tanenbaum wished for Minix to be as accessible as possible to Student s, 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 Developer s 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 Hobbyist s. COMMERCIALLY-PUBLISHED DISTRIBUTIONS
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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