| MINIX | |
|---|---|
 | |
 The MINIX 3.3.0login prompt | |
| Developer | Andrew S. Tanenbaum, et al. |
| Written in | C |
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Abandoned |
| Source model | Open-source |
| Initial release | 1987; 39 years ago (1987) |
| Latest release | 3.3.0[1] / 16 September 2014; 11 years ago (2014-09-16) |
| Latest preview | 3.4.0rc6[2] / 9 May 2017; 8 years ago (2017-05-09) |
| Repository | |
| Marketing target | Teaching (v1, v2) Embedded systems (v3) |
| Available in | English |
| Update method | Compile fromsource code |
| Package manager | N/A |
| Supported platforms | IBM PC compatibles,68000,SPARC,Atari ST,Amiga,Macintosh,SPARCstation,Intel 386,NS32532,ARM,Inmostransputer,Intel Management Engine[3] |
| Kernel type | Microkernel |
| Userland | BSD (NetBSD) |
| License | 2005:BSD 3-Clause[a][4] 2000:BSD 3-Clause[5][6][7] 1995:Proprietary[8] 1987:Proprietary[9] |
| Official website | www |
MINIX is aUnix-likeoperating system based on amicrokernelarchitecture, first released in 1987 and written by American-Dutch computer scientistAndrew S. Tanenbaum. It was designed as a clone of theUnix operating system[10] and one that could run on affordable,Intel 8086-basedhome computers; MINIX was targeted for use in classrooms bycomputer science students at universities.[11][10]
Its name comes frommini-Unix. MINIX was initiallyproprietary source-available, but was relicensed under theBSD 3-Clause to becomefree and open-source in 2000.[6][12] MINIX was ported to various additional platforms in the 1990s, and version 2.0 was released in 1997 and was the first to bePOSIX compliant.[13][14] Starting withMINIX 3, released in 2005, the primary aim of development shifted from education to the creation of ahighly reliable andself-healing microkernel OS.
Andrew S. Tanenbaum created MINIX atVrije Universiteit inAmsterdam to exemplify the principles conveyed in histextbook,Operating Systems: Design and Implementation (1987). (Despite sharing a name, it has no relation to the older MINIX from Digital Systems House, Inc.[15] based onAT&T Unix code.)
An abridged 12,010 lines of theCsource code of thekernel,memory manager, andfile system of MINIX 1.0 are printed in the book.Prentice-Hall also released MINIX source code andexecutable binaries onfloppy disk with a reference manual. MINIX 1 was system-call compatible withSeventh Edition Unix.[16]
Tanenbaum originally developed MINIX for compatibility with theIBM PC andIBM PC/ATmicrocomputers available at the time.
There is a version of MINIX floating around that supports the Peripheral Technology PT68K-2 and PT68K-4 computers. The PT68K-2 and the PT68K-4 are both 68000 based computers with a standard 8 bit IBM PCISA bus that has 6 connectors on the main board. It was ported to the PT68K machines by Gary Mills and Sidney Thompson. The port was adapted from the Atari port since it too is a 68000 based machine. The PT68K version has added support for the PT XT-IDE card from Peripheral Technology. It currently only supports theMDA display adapter (noCGA,EGA orVGA). For this reason, it has not yet been ported to the PT68K-5 (aka CDS68020). There is anSD Cardimage available fromhttps://github.com/mevenson/minix-for-the-PT68K-2-4.
MINIX 1.5, released in 1991, included support forMicroChannelIBM PS/2 systems, and was alsoported to the68000 andSPARC architectures, supporting theAtari ST,Amiga,Macintosh,[17][18] andSunSPARCstationcomputer platforms. There were also unofficial ports toIntel 386PC compatibles (in32-bitprotected mode),National SemiconductorNS32532,ARM andInmostransputer processors.Meiko Scientific used an early version of MINIX as the basis for theMeikOS operating system for its transputer-basedComputing Surfaceparallel computers.
Demand for the 68k-architectures waned, however, and MINIX 2.0, released in 1997, was only available for thex86 andSolaris-hosted SPARC architectures. It was the subject of the second edition ofTanenbaum's textbook, cowritten with Albert Woodhull and was distributed on aCD-ROM included with the book. MINIX 2.0 addedPOSIX.1 compliance, support for 386 and later processors in 32-bit mode and replaced theAmoeba network protocols included in MINIX 1.5 with aTCP/IP stack. A version of MINIX running as a user process underSunOS andSolaris was also available, a simulator named SMX (operating system) or justSMX for short.[19][20]
Version 2.0.3 was released in May 2001. It was the first version after MINIX had been relicensed under theBSD-3-Clause license, which was retroactively applied to all previous versions.[21]
Minix-vmd is a variant of MINIX 2.0 for IntelIA-32-compatible processors, created by two Vrije Universiteit researchers, which addsvirtual memory and support for theX Window System.
MINIX 3 was publicly announced on 24 October 2005 by Tanenbaum during his keynote speech at theAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM) Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP). Although it still serves as an example for the third edition of Tanenbaum's textbook, coauthored by Albert S. Woodhull, it is comprehensively redesigned to be "usable as a serious system on resource-limited and embedded computers and for applications requiring high reliability."[22]
MINIX 3 currently supportsIA-32 andARM architecture systems. It is available in alive CD format that allows it to be used on a computer without installing it on the hard drive, and in versions compatible with hardware emulating and virtualizing systems, includingBochs,QEMU,VMware Workstation andFusion,VirtualBox, andMicrosoft Virtual PC.
Version 3.1.2 was released on 18 April 2006. It was the first version after MINIX had been relicensed under theBSD-3-Clause license with a new fourth clause.[23]
Version 3.1.5 was released on 5 November 2009. It containsX11,emacs,vi,cc,gcc,perl,python,ash,bash,zsh,ftp,ssh,telnet,pine, and over 400 other commonUnix utility programs. With the addition of X11, this version marks the transition away from a text-only system. In many cases it can automatically restart a crashed driver without affecting running processes. In this way, MINIX is self-healing and can be used in applications demanding high reliability. Since version 3.1.4 support forvirtual memory management has been added, making it suitable for desktop OS use.[24] Desktop applications such asFirefox andOpenOffice.org are not yet available for MINIX 3 however.
As of version 3.2.0, theuserland was mostly replaced by that ofNetBSD and support frompkgsrc became possible, increasing the available software applications that MINIX can use.Clang replaced the prior compiler (withGCC now having to be manually compiled), andGDB, theGNU Debugger, wasported.[25][26]
MINIX 3.3.0, released in September 2014, brought ARM support.
MINIX 3.4.0RC, Release Candidates became available in January 2016.[27] However, a stable release of MINIX 3.4.0 is yet to be announced, and MINIX development has been dormant since 2018.[28]
MINIX supports many programming languages, includingC,C++,FORTRAN,Modula-2,Pascal,Perl,Python, andTcl.
Over 50 people attended MINIXCon 2016, a conference to discuss the history and future of MINIX.[29]
All Intel chipsets post-2015 are running MINIX 3 internally as the software component of theIntel Management Engine.[30][31]
Linus Torvalds used and appreciated MINIX,[32] but his design deviated from the MINIX architecture in significant ways, most notably by employing amonolithic kernel instead of amicrokernel. This was disapproved of by Tanenbaum in theTanenbaum–Torvalds debate. Tanenbaum explained again his rationale for using a microkernel in May 2006.[33]
EarlyLinux kernel development was done on a MINIX host system, which led toLinux inheriting various features from MINIX, such as theMINIX file system.Eric Raymond claimed that Linus hasn't actually written Linux from scratch, but rather reused source code of MINIX itself to have working codebase. As the development progressed, MINIX code was gradually phased out completely.[34]
In his 2004 book,Samizdat, Kenneth Brown ofAdTI claimed that much of the Linux kernel was copied from MINIX.[35]These accusations were rebutted universally—most prominently by Tanenbaum, who strongly criticised Brown and published a long rebuttal on his own personal Web site, also pointing out that Brown was funded byMicrosoft.[13][14]
At the time of MINIX's original development, itslicense was relatively liberal. Its licensing fee was very small ($69) relative to those of other operating systems. Tanenbaum wished for MINIX to be as accessible as possible tostudents, but his publisher was unwilling to offer material (such as the source code) that could be copied freely, so a restrictive license requiring a nominal fee (included in the price of Tanenbaum's book) was applied as a compromise. This prevented the use of MINIX as the basis for a freely distributed software system.
Whenfree and open-source Unix-like operating systems such asLinux and386BSD became available in the early 1990s, manyvolunteersoftware developers abandoned MINIX in favor of these. In April 2000, MINIX becamefree and open-source software under theBSD-3-Clause license, which was retroactively applied to all previous versions.[21][7] However, by this time other operating systems had surpassed its capabilities, and it remained primarily an operating system for students andhobbyists. In late 2005, MINIX was relicensed with a fourth clause added to theBSD-3-Clause license.[4]
| System | Lines of code | Kernel type | Language | Hardware environment | Lacks (vs others) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minix 1 | ~12k | Microkernel | C | x86-16 | ? |
| Minix 2 | ? | Microkernel | C | x86-32 | ? |
| Minix 3 | ~100k+ | Microkernel | C | x86-32 | N/a |
| Nachos | ~15k | No kernel. User-space OS simulator | C++ | MIPS simulator | SMP,paging,real hardware |
| Pintos | ~25k | Monolithic | C | x86 (typically underQEMU/Bochs) | SMP,user-space drivers |
| Xinu | ~10k | Monolithic | C | x86 /ARM | SMP, paging,virtual memory |
| xv6 | ~10k | Monolithic | C | x86 /x86-64 /RISC-V | user-space drivers,POSIX layer |
The Minix license changed in April 2000, and applies retroactively to all previous Minix distributions, even though they still carry the old, more restrictive license within.
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