> > Linux is a rewrite of BSD. > > No, Linux is rewrite of Minix.
Torwalds mentions in his book "Just for fun" how he originally *intended* to make Linux a replacement for his Minix. But what finally made its way to the ftp Site on 17.09.1991 in version 0.01 still required Minix plus a customised GCC compiler to run. And if it wouldn't have been for a little accident that made Linus send a dialing string not to his modem on /dev/tty1 but to /dev/hda instead, he wouldn't even have thought of working any further with this. But as that killed his Minix partition, the call was on to replace Minix completely. Mind you: not just rewrite of what's there, but replace all of it in its entirety. Including the underlying design concepts. Minix is based on a microkernel architecture. Linux uses a monolithic kernel instead - and this inherent difference of architecture caused that by now well known "fall-out" between Tannenbaum and Torwalds, remember? No wonder thus that when in March 1994 version 1.0 was presented at the University of Helsinki, it was a totally different operating system from Minix. Just look at the supported architecture: Minix was supposed to run on anything from an 8088 upwards, Linux was instead designed to run on a 386 and up. No standard X-Windows for Minix, actually hardly anything that could be ported from a UNIX environment to Minix without major reqriting. But: Minix works on an XT with 512 KByte (yes, that's a "K" and not an "M"...) RAM and two floppies. Linux doesn't even aim at that "low" :-) No, Linux is a bit more than just a rewrite of Minix... ;-)) Or would you call OS/2 a "rewrite of Windows 3.0"? > Kristaps Gerard ---------- list options/archives/etc.: http://www.topica.com/lists/fd-dev unsubscribe: send blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@mail-archive.com EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Rv5.bbRv4l.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
