Minix-vmd

This directory and subdirectories contain Minix-vmd, a UNIX-like system for IBM PC's and compatibles with at least a 386sx processor.

Minix-vmd is the result of a two person effort to adapt Minix to their likings. Note the last two words; This system is not created to conquer the world, it is just Minix adapted to the fancies of two people. Minix is a small educational UNIX-like system created by Andy Tanenbaum. If you don't know what Minix is then please read the Minix Info Sheet first. It is probably wise to play with Minix before trying Minix-vmd. Especially since Minix is meant to be an educational tool, an objective Minix-vmd does not share. (Which does not say it is not educational.)

The two main additions to Minix-vmd compared to standard Minix are:

All other differences are not worth mentioning in detail, because that is what they are, detailed changes and improvements. These things add up to making Minix-vmd about twice as big as standard Minix, but still small compared to any other of the free UNIX-like systems out there.

Minix-vmd, like Minix, is open source. The copyright notices of the bits and pieces that make up Minix-vmd are spelled out in the file COPYRIGHT. The Minix license changed in April 2000, and applies retroactively to all previous Minix and Minix-vmd distributions, even though they still carry the old, more restrictive license within.

You can find the following directories in this tree: 

	1.7.0/		- Minix-vmd 1.7.0

	opt/		- Optional packages for Minix-vmd

	dosutil/	- Useful MS-DOS utilities for Minix installation

	gnu/		- GNU source for binary only programs (i.e. GCC)
Files with suffix .gz are gzip-compressed, files with suffix .tar are archives of files, and files with suffix .tgz or .TGZ are compressed archives. Use one of 
	gunzip file.gz
	tar xvfp file.tar
	gzcat file.TGZ | tar xvfp -
to uncompress or unpack compressed files, archives, and compressed archives. Our FTP server allows you to transfer entire directory trees in a single command if you reference the directory with .tar attached to its name. So you could get 1.7.0.tar in one blow if you want to, but note that you probably do not want everything in a given directory. Inspect the contents of a directory first. 
					Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)
					Philip Homburg (philip@cs.vu.nl)