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Re: Linux as OS course.
On Tue, 18 Aug 1998, Shachar Tal wrote:
>
> I know this is a Linux mailing list, and the debate of that professor was
> choosing between Linux and NT, but why not teach Solaris?
>
> Solaris for x86 is free nowadays, and, talking about the academic Solaris
> suite, the paper weight of the documentation about its internal structures
> and operations is roughly the equivalent of a massive oak tree, plus
> there are plenty of ready-made OS structure course slides to steal out
> there (such as
> http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/Courses/Operating-Systems-Structure/).
>
Two points come to my mind:
1. Solaris can be regarded as a dead or about to be dead OS. Sun thinks
it's a waste of resources to maintain it when the Linux community can do
90% of its OS work for it. Plus, more and more people will want to switch
from SPARC to i386 or IA-64 (Merced) and Sun wants SPARC to be considered
a _Linux_ architecture rather than a _Solaris_ architecture, because in
the near future at least, Linux will be considered _the_ OS, or at least
_the OS_ No. 2.
The professors would like to teach about an OS that the students will work
with in the future extensively, so either Linux or NT are his best
bets.
2. Solaris' code license (i.e. AT&T SystemV's license) makes Windows'
license look liberal. I believe Microsoft will allow students to install
NT on their home machines "for the duration of the course", so Solaris
x86' "free-ness" is just a technicality.
3. Solaris x86 cannot be considered as _the_ Solaris, while i386's linux
or NT can be considered as _the_ XXX.
If you ask me, I'd consider using OpenBSD or FreeBSD, because there's lots
of material on BSD available. It's not as popular though. In any case, a
closed-source OS is not a good idea for an OS-course, unless it
demonstrates more concepts than the equivalent open-source one. NT is more
complex than Linux is (which is usually a disadvanatge), so it's "better"
than Linux in that case.
Shlomi Fish