Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 20:58:52 -0600 From: Mike Allison <mallison@konnections.com> To: Stephen Fuqua <sfuqua@pulsar.cs.wku.edu>, "'Wes Peters'" <softweyr@xmission.com> Cc: "chat@FreeBSD.ORG" <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: FreeBSD for Operating Systems Course Message-ID: <01BCD751.A61E2ED0@ip185-245.konnections.com>
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Wes & Stephen:
I have seen a feww good textbook like discussions of LINUX from the kernel out, but I think there are a couple of other discussions that would sway me, though I use LINUX the most....
Most of use used MINIX as our personal introduction to UNIX where we didn't have mini computers at home to play with. But, while MINIX is an educational tool, it is an educational tool. As a sample of a UNIX - like operating system it is excellent and a well prepared whole. As a sample of a real world answer to a series of operational problems, it is untested and unapplied. Quite shortly, it is a model of an OS, not an OS.
LINUX and *BSD (Free, 386, Net, what have you), are similar in many of their cross borrowings, but today's Linux is more like (and more of) *BSD than the original Linux. *BSD is the only of the three which has its roots in REAL UNIX. A good deal of what is useful in LINUX came from available BSD codes.
Because of this, more OS textbooks focusing on UNIX applies to BSD than the others. I think, all of these points weigh in for *BSD as the best teaching choice AFTER MINIX, or an equivalent model OS.
Of course, I used to teach Ayn Rand as English Literature......
-Mike Allison...
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From: Wes Peters
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 1997 7:46 PM
To: Stephen Fuqua
Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: FreeBSD for Operating Systems Course
As you can see, Linux would be a good choice from an operational
standpoint, and Minix from a class textbook standpoint, but FreeBSD
excels at both.
I welcome contrasting viewpoints, not that I'm likely to find any here.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
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