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MINIX 3 is a project with the aim to create a small, basic, yet reliable and functional Unix-like operating system. The main goal of the project is for the system to be reliable. The part of it running in so-called kernel mode was written in under 4000 lines of code, which makes it an incredibly small operating system.Tanenbaum, Andrew. "MINIX 3: A small, reliable free operating system:." Vrije Universiteit. 15 Jun 2006 [http://www.MINIX3.org/].) It is published under the BSD license. The main use of the operating system are envisaged to be embedded systems (such as ADSL routers) as well as the education sector, such as universities or the $100 laptops.("LWN.net." LWN: MINIX 3 hits the net. 28 Oct 2005. Eklektix, Inc.. 4 Jul 2006 [http://lwn.net/Articles/156828/].)

MINIX 3 currently supports IA-32 architecture PC compatible systems. It is also possible to run MINIX under emulators or virtual machines, such as Bochs(Woodhull, Al. Getting Started with Minix on Bochs on Mac OS. 20 Feb 2003. 8 Jul 2006 [http://www.woodhull.com/newfaq/faq/bochstart.html].)(Senn, Will. "OSNews.com." Virtually Minix: A Tutorial & Intro to Minix on XP via Bochs - OSNews.com. 08 Jul 2006. OSNews.com. 8 Jul 2006 [http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=7303].), VMWare (Wagstrom, Patrick. Minix under VMWare Installation How-To. 8 Jul 2006 [http://patrick.wagstrom.net/projects/academic/cs551/minix.html].) as well as Virtual PC. (Woodhull, Al. Minix on Virtual PC: first look. 02 Jun 2005. 8 Jul 2006 [http://www.woodhull.com/newfaq/faq/pre-vpc.html].)
Ports to the PowerPC and ARM architecture are in development.

Goals of the project


Reflecting on the unstable nature of monolithic systems, where a driver (which has approximately 3-7 times as many bugs as a usual program) can bring down the whole system(Tanenbaum, Andrew. CSAIL Event Calendar. 25 Aug 2006 [http://www.csail.mit.edu/events/eventcalendar/calendar.php?show=event&id=1128].), MINIX 3 aims to create an operating system that is a "reliable, self-healing, multiserver UNIX clone".Tanenbaum, Andrew. "Tanenbaum-Torvalds debate, Part II:." 12 May 2006. Vrije Universiteit. 15 Jun 2006 [http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/reliable-os/].) In order to achieve that, drivers must be unable to crash the whole microkernel. For that to be done, each driver must be carefully monitored by a part of the system known as the reincarnation server. If a driver fails to respond to pinging from the reincarnation server, it is shut down and replaced by a fresh copy of the driver. In a monolithic system, it would be a lot easier for a driver to crash the whole kernel, something that is a lot less likely to occur in MINIX 3.(Tanenbaum, Andrew S.. "Reliability." The MINIX 3 Operating System. Vrije Universiteit.. 22 Jun 2006 [http://www.MINIX3.org/reliability.html -->.

Differences between MINIX 3 and prior versions


MINIX 1 and 2 were developed as tools to help people learn about the design of operating systems. MINIX 3 does the same, and provides a modern operating system with many newer tools such as the X window system and many other UNIX applications. Prof. Tanenbaum once said, "Please be aware that MINIX 3 is not your grandfather's MINIX ... MINIX 1 was written as an educational tool ... MINIX 3 is that plus a start at building a highly reliable, self-healing, bloat-free operating system ... MINIX 1 and MINIX 3 are related in the same way as Windows 3.1 and Windows XP are: same first name." There have also been many improvements in the structure of the kernel since MINIX 2 was released, making the operating system more reliable.Tanenbaum, Andrew. "The MINIX 3 Operating System." Improvements since V2. 05 Jul 2006 [http://www.minix3.org/improvements.html].)

Books



* Tanenbaum, Andrew S.; Albert S. Woodhull. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation. Third Edition. Prentice Hall, 2006. ISBN 0-13-142938-8.
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