Introduction to MINIX 3

MINIX 3 is the youngest member i.e. a latest release of MINIX -- the operating system family written right from scratch initially by Prof.Andrew Tannenbaum (ast) and now maintained by the associates of Vrije University (http://www.vu.nl) at the Netherlands.

Initial versions i.e. MINIX 1 and 2 were more specific for academic purposes. But this latest release can seriously be considered as an alternative operating system for adoption where there are scarce financial as well as system resources.

The most important feature that makes this operating system to be more effective for older/slower/embeded machines over other operating systems is the Microkernel, that consist of only about 4000 lines of code in contrast to the other operating systems' kernels (Windows, Linux and Solaris) being packed with tonnes of lines of code. Furthermore, the device drivers in this operating system runs as an independent user level modules hence, whenever any device dirver fails to respond the reincarnation server restarts the process automatically which prevents the computer from hanging. Other advantages offering the high reliability to the MINIX 3 are such as but not limited to: prohibited device drivers' memory access, buffer overrun protection, protected I/O port access to drivers etc. It can even be installed on a 386/486/Pentium and above machines with as low as 16 MB of RAM and 70-80 MB of free diskspace. Hence, it also projected the operating system for MIT's 100$ laptop - one laptop per child project (http://www.laptop.org).

Being small in size and compatible for a smaller/older hardware doesn't mean that the system is not feature rich! The POSIX standard compliant operating system comes with about 400 programs with which all the UNIX/Linux geeks are familier.

Last but not the least the OS is open source, freely distributed under BSD style license and community developed, hence it is a smarter choice for anyone who wants something else than Windows "and" Linux.

This OS can be downloaded from http://www.minix3.org

-- Xitij Shukla
Systems

http://www.srkinstitute.com/
SRK College of Management and Computer Education, Bhuj, INDIA

Special thanks to http://www.freedomain.co.nr