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From: diamant@hpfclp.HP.COM (John Diamant)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: MINIX - From the mouth of the horse
Message-ID: <6640001@hpfclp.HP.COM>
Date: Fri, 9-Jan-87 03:21:21 EST
Article-I.D.: hpfclp.6640001
Posted: Fri Jan  9 03:21:21 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Jan-87 22:52:39 EST
References: <485@uvm-gen.UUCP>
Organization: HP, Fort Collins
Lines: 41

Andy,

I read your note with much interest.  This sounds like a fantastic
system which I am strongly considering buying for my IBM PC.  However,
your note left a few questions in my mind.  Someone else here has already
placed an order for your book and we will try to get a copy in Washington.

What confused me (and others who already read your note and are interested)
is that we could not figure out what the difference between the 4 software
packages was.  Personally, I am most interested in the 2 PC versions at
the moment.  You mentioned that the smaller version didn't have the C compiler.
If that were the only difference, I would assume you could simply ship the
larger one and tell people the compiler will not run on the smaller systems.
So I presume that there is some sort of kernel tuning such that the smaller
system will run with limited memory.  Since you supply source, and I didn't
see any mention of a kernel tuning utility, I assume that it requires
recompiling the kernel to tune it.  This means that the larger system (since
it can compile itself) is tunable, whereas the smaller one isn't.  Is this
correct?  Is it possible to create the smaller system by setting a few
parameters and recompiling the system on a larger machine?  Is this documented
in your book?  The reason I ask is that I am trying to decide which
configuration I would need to order (I have 384K and 2 floppies).  If it
is worth it, I would upgrade my PC to 640K.  What sort of performance
difference is there between a 256K version and a 640K version?

You also mention a different version for the PC-AT.  If I upgrade my PC to
an AT will I then have the wrong version?  Or would I simply need to recompile
the system with a different ifdef active?

Which binaries are on the tar format?

I also have one question on a completely different topic.  I noticed one
significant area not mentioned in your feature list -- uucp.  Does MINIX
not have uucp?

Thanks,

John Diamant
Systems Software Operation	UUCP:  {hplabs,hpfcla}!hpfclp!diamant
Hewlett Packard Co.		ARPA/CSNET: diamant%hpfclp@hplabs.HP.COM
Fort Collins, CO