I realize that my method of random selection is not very scientific.
#BOCHS CONFIGURE CODE#
To be sure, Joe Hacker could probably tell by the context, of every line of code in compat.c, what each line does and would likely claim that the comments were superfluous – that compat.c contains nothing but self documenting code, but for us normal, non superhuman types, comments are a necessity for understanding. Minix: keyboard.c 505 lines, 142 comments, (too many to bother counting). Linux: compat.c, 533 lines, 8 comments, 26 lines
#BOCHS CONFIGURE ARCHIVE#
I decided to compare a couple of comparably sized files from the Linux kernel archive and Minix source at random to get a feel for the comment levels of the two OSes and the results were astonishing: Another striking difference is comments – the Minix source is incredibly well documented and suitable for study. The Linux kernel archive is 176 megs uncompressed. The Minix system source code comprises a whopping, 4.5 megs uncompressed. The biggest difference being that Minix is a micro-kernel. Minix is Unix-like and therefore Linux-like, and yet, it differs considerably in it’s architecture. The Minix source code was included in the book, Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, by Andrew Tanenbaum, a classic of modern technical literature, for free. Minix predates Linux as the first free, unencumbered, Unix clone. Originally created by Andrew Tanenbaum to compensate for ATT’s prohibition against teaching Unix internals and to provide him with a tool for teaching Operating System design and internals to his students.
Minix is a Free, Open Source, Unix-like Operating System.
Long story short, I learned in the space of a couple of days, that Minix was worthy of further study. Al Woodhull co-authored the Second Edition of Operating Systems: Design and Implementation and is quite an authority on all things Minix.
#BOCHS CONFIGURE SERIES#
I followed a series of links from there and wound up at Al Woodhull’s helpful Minix site. Intrigued, I followed a link to a response by Andrew Tanenbaum, Minix’s creative father, and a few days later the followup.Īndrew Tanenbaum’s concise history of Linux come Unix is quite interesting, if unconventional. What threw me over the edge and got me to exploring Minix on Bochs was the article that OSNews linked to at CNET News, by Stephen Shankland – Is Torvalds really the father of Linux This article reported on the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution report, which suggested that more credit should be given to Minix. I archived off the work and forgot about it for a few days. After about 10 hours of fairly painful downloading and tweaking, I got these OSes working in Bochs, to some extent: Menuet NewOS Oberon Tomsrtbt Needless to say, I was raring to emulate every OS I could find, thus I needed Bochs.
#BOCHS CONFIGURE MAC#
I dusted off the Panther CDs and 5 hours later, Mac on a PC, will wonders never cease. Thom Holwerda wrote an article on about running OSX Panther on a PC. My interest in Minix has been rekindled in recent days by a combination of events. Andrew Tanenbaum for Minix, Al Woodhull for the Minix on Bochs on Windows How-to, and Thom Holwerda for introducing me to PearPC. Props to Andrew Tanenbaum, Al Woodhull, and Thom Holwerda. Hence, this article will also serve as an introduction to one such alternative, Minix, which has a very rich heritage, indeed. In this era of Linux and Windows domination of the OS scene, it is important to remember that there are alternatives.
These are the latest versions of Minix, Bochs and Windows XP as of May of 2004. This tutorial will walk the reader through setting up Minix 2.0.4 on Windows XP via Bochs 2.1.1.
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