Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!PURDUE.EDU!comer
From: comer@PURDUE.EDU (Douglas Comer)
Newsgroups: comp.os.xinu
Subject: Re: 68k Minix
Message-ID: <8805101934.AA04927@merlin.cs.purdue.edu>
Date: 10 May 88 19:34:51 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 31

Clint,

  >>	... are the PC versions available in MSDOS format, or can one only
  >>	get them in (minix,xinu) format?  Also:

The PC version of Xinu comes on standard MS-DOS disks.  Only one of the
disks contains a Xinu-style file system (and that's just for fun).

  >>	Would some soul(s) *EMAIL* me a brief rundown on comparative features of
  >>	Minix and Xinu?  How do their models differ?  Their interprocess
  >>	communication?  Performance on normal applications?  Completeness of
  >>	the standard unix tool sets?

Briefly, Minix is a minature version 7 (circa 1978) UNIX system; Xinu is an
entirely new, hierarchically structures operating system with only small
resemblence to UNIX internally.  They don't even attempt to do the same
things.  Minix tries to provide a small UNIX environment; Xinu tries to
illustrate new operating system concepts including networking protocols.
Minix looks to the past; Xinu looks to the future.  Minix runs on PCs;
Xinu runs on PCs, Vaxen, PDP11s, SUNs, National 32000s, etc.  Go to your
library and look at the two texts.
	
	Why are both distributions $80, and both books over $40?

Prentice Hall publishes both books and distributes software; they set the
price.  In your case, contact Prof. Larry Peterson (in your cs dept) who
probably has a verison of Xinu he can let you play with (Larry is a former
Ph.D. student of mine).

Doug