Anybody here messed around with MINIX?

[GNU_man]

This was the OS that inspired Linux, so i figure it may be of interest to some. I have it running on my 12Mhz 286 and it's pretty kewl! True multitasking in 16-bit protected mode, a ton of text editors (including the ubiquitous vi clone Elvis) all the major UNIX commands, sh clone, and 2 vitual consoles!

[jaboua]

Hey cool! I have an old computer over here as well, from '89 or something, maybe if I set it up I can run minix as well? I have no idea 'kinda processor it has and such, but I'll probably find out... If it can run DOS it probably can run minix

[GNU_man]

Minix 2.0 is the version i'm using. It runs on 8088+ I think the mem requirement is 512kb.
If your machine is an '89 it's most likely a 286, so should be fine. Definatlely worth checking out.

With all sources, the total distro is 7 floppy's IIRC.

[Fallen Angel]

Now all I need is a 286 computer

[GNU_man]

There is also a 32bit version for 386+ but i've never tried it. Says in the doc's that performance is maxed with 4MB RAM. It won't use up more that this. Now that's efficiency

[GNU_man]

heh heh, sounds like a perfect candidate:

http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html

how much extended memory does it have? Mine has only 384kb

[GNU_man]

cool. let me know when you have it up and running, and how the install went.

BTW my 286 is actually a dual-boot system. I have Minix and FreeDOS both installed on the hard drive. It uses the MINIX bootmonitor (very useful), which is a lot like GRUB. The funny thing is, i have a 256MB hard drive in my 286 (obviously not stock, the original had bad sectors so i had to turf it), but DOS cannot detect it as more than 40MB because it gets it's info from the BIOS which is too old. But MINIX runs in protected mode, and doesn't use the BIOS, but probes port's (just like Linux ) So the rest of the drive is dedicated to Minix.