Minix for 8088? Yes!
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Minix for 8088? Yes!
Subject: Minix for 8088? Yes!
Some of the correspondence about Minix vs. Linux has argued that the
8088 compatibility of Minix is no longer important, because 80386
machines are not that much more expensive now.
That may be true when you talk about new machines, but students are
also in the market for used machines. I got a system quite competent to
run Minix, a PC clone with two 360K floppy drives, for $75 recently at
a yard sale. You aren't going to find second hand '386s for a while
yet.
Like ast I am also a professor. I expect to be teaching an OS course
using Minix in Nicaragua next year. There, as in many other places
outside the over-developed world, availability of entry-level or used
computer equipment for student use is the best that most students can
hope for. For the purpose for which it was created, continued
compatibility of Minix with low-end hardware is definitely worth
maintaining, and I hope ast will not change his target.
Linux also sounds like a nice experiment, for a different purpose. I
may decide to play with it, too, after I get Minix working on my new
'486. I don't think I will use Linux in my teaching, however.
Albert S. Woodhull
School of Natural Science, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA 01002
awoodhull@hamp.hampshire.edu, woodhull@dawn.hampshire.edu