Re: Linux is obsolete
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Re: Linux is obsolete
Just a few comments to the discussion of Linux vs Minix, which evolved
partly to a discussion of monolithic vs micro-kernel.
I think there will be no aggreement between the two parties advocating
either concept, if they forget, that Linux and Minix have been designed
for different applications. If you want a cheap, powerful and
enhancable Unix system running on a single machine, with the possibility
to adapt standard Unix software without pain, then Linux is for you. If
you are interested in modern operating system concepts, and want to
learn how a microkernel based system works, then Minix is the better
choice.
It is not an argument against microkernel system, that for the time
being monolithic implemenations of Unix on PCs have a better
performance. This means only, that Unix is maybe better implemented as
a monolithic OS, at least as long as it runs on a single machine. From
the users point of view, the internal design of the OS doesn't matter at
all. Until it comes to networks. On the monolithic approach, a file
server will become a user process based on some hardware facility like
ethernet. Programs which want to use this facility will have to use
special libraries which offer the calls for communication with this
server. In a microkernel system it is possible to incorporate the
server into the OS without the need for new "system" calls. From the
users point of view this has the advantage, that nothing changes, he
just gets better performance (in terms of more disk space for example).
From the implementors point of view, the microkernel system is faster
adaptable to changes in hardware design.
It has been critized, that AST rejects any improvements to Minix. As he
is interested in the educational value of Minix, I understand his
argument, that he wants to keep the code simple, and don't want to
overload it with features. As an educational tool, Minix is written as
a microkernel system, although it is running on hardware platforms, who
will probably better perform with a monolithic OS. But the area of
network applications is growing and modern OS like Amoeba or Plan 9
cannot be written as monolithic systems. So Minix has been written with
the intention to give students a practical example of a microkernel OS,
to let them play with tasks and messages. It was not the idea to give a
lot of people a cheap, powerful OS for a tenth of the price of SYSV or
BSD implementations.
Resumee: Linux is not better than Minix, or the other way round. They
are different for good reasons.
--
Olaf Schlueter, Sandkuhle 4-6, | olaf@oski.toppoint.de,
2300 Kiel 1, Germany, Toppoint Mailbox e.V. | olaf@tpki.toppoint.de
"When MSDOS was written specifically for the 8088 ..., this was less then
brilliant. Writing an OS only for the 386 in 91 gets you the second 'F'..." AST