An Introduction to MINIX
Aug 13, 2010, 15:06 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Bruce Byfield)
" It's not Linux, but MINIX can introduce you to the basic
concepts without all the baggage.
"Remember MINIX? Short for Minimal UNIX, MINIX is a close cousin
of GNU/Linux. To GNU/Linux users, it is simultaneously familiar and
foreign, and it challenges orthodox assumptions about how an
operating system should be designed.
"MINIX originally was developed in 1987 by Andrew S. Tanenbaum
as a teaching tool for his textbook Operating Systems Design and
Implementation. Today, it is a text-oriented operating system with
a kernel of less than 6,000 lines of code. MINIX's largest claim to
fame is as an example of a microkernel, in which each device driver
runs as an isolated user-mode process—a structure that not
only increases security but also reliability, because it means a
bug in a driver cannot bring down the entire system."
Complete
Story
Related Stories:
- How to Become Linus Torvalds(May 14, 2010)
- Video: Andrew Tanenbaum on Bugs and Minix' Reincarnation Server(Feb 18, 2010)
- A Look at MINIX (version 3.1.4)(Jan 05, 2010)
- Microkernels Again, and Mathematically Proving Safety and Reliability(Aug 13, 2009)
- Microkernels Address the OS Softspots on Your Network(Jun 16, 2009)
- Linus on Linux: The Linus Torvalds Interview Part 2(Apr 27, 2009)
- No Minix code in Linux Ever -- More Evidence(Apr 20, 2009)
- Linux Turns 17(Oct 06, 2008)
- Show Me the Code(Oct 01, 2008)
- Interview with Andrew Tanenbaum, Creator of MINIX(Aug 11, 2008)
