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Re: Linux as OS course.



On 17-Aug-98 Liran Zvibel wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Aug 1998, Stanislav Malyshev a.k.a Frodo wrote:
>> 
>> I can hardly imagine how one can teach NT kernel design at the university.
>> I thought it's one of most guarded M$ secrets? They never release it to
>> anyone, except for big money. So you would have to sign NDA entering this
>> course, or what? Student under NDA - funny, funny.

Stanislav, it's even worse than that. Microsoft license makes the university
itself accountable to the NDA terms of its students -- i.e: if a student steals
the source, the university may be sued. So the number of universities accepting
these conditions in the US is VERY small (One of the latest Usenix bulletins
had a discussion on this topic).

> As much as I like Linux and hate M$ products, I have to say that NT is
> well built and uses most of the OS principles, and should also be POSIX
> compatible (I think that the reason that it wasn't really developed by
> Micro$oft developers, but by the VMS team...)

1. Kernel is one thing, the whole system is another. All major applications
   (M$-Office etc.) replace system libraries with "improved" versions. A stable
   kernel is not enough to have a stable system.
2. Only POSIX.1 is implemented (there are about 20 more POSIX standards).
   Hardly useful for anything (except for taking credits for the well known
   name "POSIX")
3. Assuming the NT kernel stayed clean as was designed by the original team is
   incorrect. One famous example is the graphics subsystem that was entered
   into the kernel space later. Do you think the "flying window" banner running
   in kernel mode adds to kernel stability/functionality?

Don't take M$ words for granted they are experts in dis-information.

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Oron Peled                             Voice/Fax: +972-4-8228492
oron@actcom.co.il                  http://www.actcom.co.il/~oron

The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day
they start making vacuum cleaners - Ernst Jan Plugge