Minix

Minix is an open source, Unix-like operating system based on a microkernel Software 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 .

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 central processing unit, which allowed compatibility with such popular Platform (computing) as Atari ST, Amiga, Apple Macintosh and Sun Microsystems SPARC. The Motorola 68000 waned in popularity, 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 publically announced on October 24th, 2005 by Andrew Tanenbaum during a keynote speech he gave at the SOSP 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.

==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 development, the software 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 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 prompted the creation of Linux, and 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 an operating system for students and hobbyists.

=Commercially-published distributions=

*Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Minix Binaries and Sources . Prentice Hall, 1987. ISBN 0-13-583873-8 **A set of 360KB 5¼ floppy disks intended for use with IBM PCs with 640KB of Random-access memory. *A set of disks for IBM PC with 256KB RAM, which does not include the C compiler since it cannot execute in the amount of memory. ISBN 0-13-583881-9. *Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Minix 1.3 Binaries and Sources for IBM PC/ATs . Prentice Hall, 1994. ISBN 0-13-583865-7 **A set of 1.2MB 5¼" floppy disks for IBM PC/AT computers with at least 512KB RAM *Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Minix Source Software . Pearson Higher Education, 1990. ISBN 0-13-583899-1 **Nine-track, industry-standard 1600 BPI magnetic tape containing Computer file encapsulated in the Tar (file format) file format. Includes an IBM PC emulator, as well as Library (computing) and Computer program allowing the Minix file system to operate on VAX and other minicomputers running Unix. *Tanenbaum, Andrew S. and Albert S. Woodhull. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation . Second Edition. Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN 0-13-638677-6 **This hardcover textbook includes a bundled CD-ROM containing Minix version 2.0. *Tanenbaum, Andrew S. and Albert S. Woodhull. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation . Third Edition. Prentice Hall, 2006. ISBN 0-13-142938-8

=See also=

*Minix file system *Minix from Scratch *Minix-vmd

=External links=

*[http://www.minix3.org/ minix3.org] the official MINIX 3 Operating System site *[http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html Minix Information Sheet] Andrew Tanenbaum s Minix site at Vrije Universiteit *[http://minix1.hampshire.edu/ Minix1.hampshire.edu] *[http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Unix/MINIX/ The MINIX category] at the Open Directory Project *[http://tuxmobil.org/mobile_minix.html Minix on laptops and PDAs] *[http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/brown/ History of Minix from Andrew Tanenbaum] *[http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/appa.html Linus Torvalds and Andrew Tanenbaum argue about technologies in Minix and Linux] *[http://minix1.hampshire.edu/faq/mxlicense.html Minix under the BSD License] *[http://www.laurasia.com.au/ack/ Source code for the Minix system compiler] *[news://comp.os.minix comp.os.minix] - the Minix Usenet newsgroup