Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!naim
From: naim@eecs.nwu.edu (Naim Abdullah)
Newsgroups: comp.os.mach
Subject: Re: Query: Status of Mach cleanout?
Message-ID: <12720001@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 19 Aug 89 11:58:51 GMT
References: <2314@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu>
Organization: Northwestern U, Evanston IL, USA
Lines: 38

Thos Sumner writes:
>Some time ago there were postings indicating the Mach project was
>actively pursuing the replacement of the AT&T code in the BSD
>compatibility component so that a full kernel source could be
>distributed without requiring AT&T licenses.
>
>The target date was supposed to be June 1989 in the last message
>I saw. Can anyone provide authoritative information on the status
>of this project?

I cannot provide "authoritative information", but in the GNU bulletin
distributed in the June '89 USENIX by the Free Software Foundation, it
says:

>   * Kernel
>
>     We hope to use the MACH message-passing kernel being developed at
>     CMU.  The current distributed version of MACH is not free because
>     it contains code from BSD of AT&T origin.  However, the MACH
>     developers have been working to separate this code from the kernel
>     and they now say that they have a first version of this running in
>     alpha test.  Once this is stable, the MACH kernel is supposed to
>     become free.
>
>     Should MACH not become available, then we will start the kernel
>     with either MIT's TRIX kernel or Berkeley's Sprite system.
>

I hope this alpha testing finishes soon, and the freed MACH kernel can
be shipped to FSF and the world!


		      Naim Abdullah
		      Dept. of EECS,
		      Northwestern University

		      Internet: naim@eecs.nwu.edu
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