The Minix Operating System (Minix 2 support)

modified: 7 Sept 2006

For MINIX 3 go to http://www.minix3.org. (Minix 3 released Oct 2005)

Minix 2 support

As of the middle of 2006, Minix 2 and the text that describes it, Operating Systems Design and Implementation, 2nd edition, are still in widespread use, even though Minix 3 and the 3rd edition of the OSDI text are now available. Many professors have course materials based on Minix 2 that they wish to use, and it may be several years before translations of the new edition of the text to languages other than English are available. Thus there is still a need for a website that supports Minix 2. This site is the successor to the minix1.hampshire.edu server that came on line while Minix 2 and OSDI, 2nd ed., were still being developed in 1996. The original site and its mirror at minix1.bio.umass.edu have been taken off line.

What's here? Navigation links on each page point to these major divisions:


FAQ	This is the Minix 2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) index. (See also the HINTS page).
HINTS	This is the Minix 2 hints index, with information about many aspects of Minix. (Hints: answers to questions that nobody asked, but somebody should have asked).

GET MINIX 2	Download Minix 2.0.4 for a native hard disk installation, to run on top of an MS-DOS or Windows FAT file system, or as a virtual machine for the free VMWare player.

CONTRIB SOFTWARE	Many individual programmers have contributed packages posted here, from small utilities to ports of major programs, some experimental, some well-tested.

NET SOFTWARE	Minix can act as a server for ftp and http, and can connect using ethernet, slip, ppp, or plip. These and more are here.

DOCS	Documentation for Minix 2.

TEACHING MINIX	Minix was written to provide an OS that students could explore and modify while learning operating system principles. Here are resources for those teaching with Minix.

OTHER MINIXES	As of 2005, Minix 3 is the focus of Minix development. Minix-vmd began as an extended standard Minix and was developed into a more capable system tailored to the needs of its authors.

LINKS	There are many other sources of Minix information on the net, here are links to some of them.

More about Minix

The old Minix1 home page provides general information about Minix and this site. A few highlights:

Minix is freely available, under a permissive license.
A major subset of Minix 3 is described in the 3rd edition of Operating Systems Design and Implementation, by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Albert S. Woodhull, published in early 2006.
Minix 2 was the reference system for the previous edition of this text, published in 1997.
The Minix 2 manual pages can be read online.

Author, feedback request

The author of these pages is Al Woodhull and his home page is here

This site is changing (June 2006). Many elements of this website have been recently updated or will be updated soon. Feedback is solicited -- please write if you have difficulty navigating these pages, if there is information you would like to see here, or (especially) if there used to be material here that you can't find now.

[HOME]	[FAQ]	[HINTS]	[GET MINIX 2]	[CONTRIB SOFTWARE]
[NET SOFTWARE]	[DOCS]	[TEACHING MINIX]	[OTHER MINIXES]	[LINKS]

All material on this site not otherwise attributed is copyright ©1994-2006 Albert S. Woodhull
Click here for information on copying and other use.
Mail comments on this page to: Al Woodhull <asw@woodhull.com>