MINIX 3

MINIX 3 is a project to develop an operating system as reliable as a TV set, for embedded systems and mission critical applications, but also for future $50 single-chip laptops and general desktop use. The focus is being small, simple, and reliable.
MINIX 3 has a bright future but somewhat checkered past.
- First released in 1987
- first UNIX clone with all the source code available
The first version, MINIX 1, was released in 1987 and was the first UNIX clone with all the source code available. It developed rapidly and soon had its own USENET newsgroup (comp.os.minix), with 40,000 subscribers within 3 months, a large number at a time when the Internet was only available to university researchers and students. One of the early MINIX adopters was a Finnish student named Linus Torvalds, who went out and bought a PC just to run MINIX, studied it very carefully, and then decided to write his own operating system, inspired by MINIX. Although Linus knew MINIX very well, he didn't steal any code from it, as some people have alleged. Linus system grew into the modern Linux system. MINIX' author, Andrew Tanenbaum and Torvalds have had some fairly public discussions on operating system design, originally in 1992 and most recently in 2006.
Although MINIX was (and still is) widely used used for teaching operating systems courses at universities, it got a new impetus in 2005 when Tanenbaum assembled a new team of people to completely redo it as a highly reliable system. MINIX 3 has some history with MINIX 1 and MINIX 2 (released in 1997 as a POSIX-conformant OS), but it is really a new system (analogous to the relationship between Windows XP and Windows 3.1).


In our Operating Systems subject, we were asked to choose an operating system that is not widely used. Our group chose to have the MINIX 3. The other groups also had a report on their chosen operating systems and that discussion was really an interesting one. They presented OpenSUSE, Fedorra, ReactOS, Ubuntu, Red Hat Linux and a lot more. Some operating systems presented really looked like the widely used Windows Operating System.
The environment of MINIX3, the operating system we chose to present in class, was like the one with the LINUX operating system since both operating systems are text mode. Above is part of our presentation.

My Mama’s First Computer Lessons

Nowadays, almost everybody know how to use computers even elementary students now also have their computer lessons in school. People sometimes think that you if you know how to use computers, you will easily adapt to the new gadgets available nowadays.
Before, my mother mentioned in one of our conversations that she really wants to go back in school and that she wants to know how these computers are operated. There was one time in our place where a school was offering short term courses for those who want to learn about computers. Knowing this, my mother told me that she wanted to enroll in that school. Unfortunately, the classes are scheduled every Sunday so it will be a bit difficult for her to attend those classes because she had many things to do in those days. Just to make her feel good, I told her that I will teach her the basic things done in the computer.
Fortunately, I got my computer last December. But I was busy then so I had no time to teach her. This month, I started teaching her. Now, she knew how to turn on and off the computer, and to use Microsoft Word 2007. This image above is her first document saved.

Although I just taught her those basic steps, it really made my mother happy. Sometimes when she has nothing to do, she would open the computer and play the games installed in my computer particularly the game Chuzzle and Text Twist. She told me this line, “Better late than never”.

It’s never too late to learn new things. Congrats Mama!!mwah