Re: Minix vs. ELKS

[Javier Sedano <jsedano@dit.upm.es>]

Feher Tamas wrote:
> 
> When will ELKS become an alternative for Minix, considering practical usability
> for an end-user, who does a moderate amount of programming work (mostly
> customizing the OS for his/her personal needs and writing small utils)?

	The ELKS kernel is almost ready, and many applications are available.
	A distribution (EDE) is being integrated, but it is still far from
Minix and farder from Linux distributions. Anyway, it makes much easier
to install ELKS.
	The compiler is currently being worked on to be runned on ELKS, but it
is still work-in-progress.


> The
> hardware is 80186 with PCMCIA slot, fastest and reliable serial port
> functionality is important.
> 

	I don't know what this sentence means...

> -Will ELKS have a GUI? I heard Minix had some very basic X, about the time of
> Minix version 1.5

	Minix does not have X, neither other garphics system. Minix-vmd can run
XFree86, but Minix-vmd doesn't run on 8086.

	ELKS can run microwindow (search google), an X-like graphic
environment, but I have never done so.

> -Is there ELKS equivalent to Minix's DosRead/DosWrite/DosDir functionality to
> access M$ FAT filesystem?
> 

	You can try to compile those applications with bcc, and try to run on
ELKS, and report what happens.

-- 
Everytime I Find The Meaning Of Life, They Change It.
--------
Javier Sedano Jarillo      http://www.it.uc3m.es/~jsedano
 jsedano@dit.upm.es (*)
 jsedano@ieee.org