> On Jun 16, 2023, at 8:04 PM, ben via cctalk <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On 2023-06-16 4:56 p.m., Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
>> On 6/16/23 12:48, ben via cctalk wrote:
>>> What cpu?
>>> Minix was 16 bit code only. I suspect 16 bit code here as well.
>>> Remember 32 bit code is 2x the size of 16 bit stuff.
>> 32-bit, I'm afraid. To quote:
>> WHAT IS LINUX?
>> Linux is a Unix clone for 386/486-based PCs written from scratch by
>> Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers
>> across the Net. It aims towards POSIX compliance.
>> It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged
>> Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries,
>> demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory
>> management and TCP/IP networking.
>> It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the
>> accompanying COPYING file for more details.
>> --Chuck
>
> Was that quote written for version #1.
> At risk of being a troll, when did Unix (PDP 11) not have all the the above.
> Other than TCP/IP networking, I don't see any of above features
> desirable, as I feel a need for more real time operating systems.
BSD 2.11 had TCP/IP. Anyway, the thing that made Linux special is not its Unix
nature but that it is an unencumbered Unix-compatible OS. That was a big deal
back in the days of restrictive licensing run by the likes of AT&T and many
others.
> How many OS's are complete in design that you don't need to bypass
> the OS like MS DOS.
> Ben.
For what definition of "need"?
I have at times needed to go around the OS with MSDOS, with OS/360 and with
RT-11, but rarely if ever with others ranging from THE to RSTS to CDC NOS. Of
course it helps to be able to write device drivers, that takes care of a number
of the cases. And at times I have done modifications to the OS, thought not
usually large ones. The main exception I can think of is NetBSD, where I
worked on a storage product that had all the high-speeed functionality inside,
or more precisely to the side of, NetBSD. That and the network stack in a
separate CPU core running an entirely different very skinny RTOS known as
"QRQ". (That's a ham radio code for "please transmit faster".)
paul
