1. Linux Kernel was written under which project?
a. GNU.
b. MINIX.
c. None.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong!
The correct answer is C.
Did you know? The linux kernel was not written specifically for the GNU project, but the linux kernel and the GNU system work together well. GNU project was different from linux, but the addition of linux to GNU brought the system to completion.
Correct!
Did you know? The linux kernel was not written specifically for the GNU project, but the linux kernel and the GNU system work together well. GNU project was different from linux, but the addition of linux to GNU brought the system to completion.
2.
Linus Torvalds, the founder of the linux kernel was born in
a. USA
b. Finland
c. UK
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong!The correct answer is
B.
Did you know? Linus Benedict Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, the capital and largest city in Finland. He was named after Linus Pauling, the famous physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
Correct!Did you know? Linus Benedict Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, the capital and largest city in Finland. He was named after Linus Pauling, the famous physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
3.
Professor Tanenbaum, the developer of MINIX on which Linux was originally partially based in a now popular usenet posting mainly criticized which of the following aspects of linux?
a. Monolithic Nature
b. Portability
c. Both
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is C.
Did you know?Below is Andrew Tanenbaum's famous 1992 comp.os.minix newsgroup posting in which he criticizes Linux's monolithic kernel as well as Linus Torvald's first response in a very long thread.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: LINUX is obsolete
Date: 29 Jan 92 12:12:50 GMT
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
I was in the U.S. for a couple of weeks, so I haven't commented much on
LINUX (not that I would have said much had I been around), but for what
it is worth, I have a couple of comments now.
As most of you know, for me MINIX is a hobby, something that I do in the
evening when I get bored writing books and there are no major wars,
revolutions, or senate hearings being televised live on CNN. My real
job is a professor and researcher in the area of operating systems.
As a result of my occupation, I think I know a bit about where operating
are going in the next decade or so. Two aspects stand out:
1. MICROKERNEL VS MONOLITHIC SYSTEM
Most older operating systems are monolithic, that is, the whole operating
system is a single a.out file that runs in 'kernel mode.' This binary
contains the process management, memory management, file system and the
rest. Examples of such systems are UNIX, MS-DOS, VMS, MVS, OS/360,
MULTICS, and many more.
The alternative is a microkernel-based system, in which most of the OS
runs as separate processes, mostly outside the kernel. They communicate
by message passing. The kernel's job is to handle the message passing,
interrupt handling, low-level process management, and possibly the I/O.
Examples of this design are the RC4000, Amoeba, Chorus, Mach, and the
not-yet-released Windows/NT.
While I could go into a long story here about the relative merits of the
two designs, suffice it to say that among the people who actually design
operating systems, the debate is essentially over. Microkernels have won.
The only real argument for monolithic systems was performance, and there
is now enough evidence showing that microkernel systems can be just as
fast as monolithic systems (e.g., Rick Rashid has published papers
comparing Mach 3.0 to monolithic systems) that it is now all over but
the shoutin`.
MINIX is a microkernel-based system. The file system and memory
management are separate processes, running outside the kernel. The I/O
drivers are also separate processes (in the kernel, but only because the
brain-dead nature of the Intel CPUs makes that difficult to do otherwise).
LINUX is a monolithic style system. This is a giant step back into the
1970s. That is like taking an existing, working C program and rewriting
it in BASIC. To me, writing a monolithic system in 1991 is a truly poor
idea.
2. PORTABILITY
Once upon a time there was the 4004 CPU. When it grew up it became an
8008. Then it underwent plastic surgery and became the 8080. It begat
the 8086, which begat the 8088, which begat the 80286, which begat the
80386, which begat the 80486, and so on unto the N-th generation. In
the meantime, RISC chips happened, and some of them are running at over
100 MIPS. Speeds of 200 MIPS and more are likely in the coming years.
These things are not going to suddenly vanish. What is going to happen
is that they will gradually take over from the 80x86 line. They will
run old MS-DOS programs by interpreting the 80386 in software. (I even
wrote my own IBM PC simulator in C, which you can get by FTP from
ftp.cs.vu.nl = 192.31.231.42 in dir minix/simulator.) I think it is a
gross error to design an OS for any specific architecture, since that is
not going to be around all that long.
MINIX was designed to be reasonably portable, and has been ported from
the Intel line to the 680x0 (Atari, Amiga, Macintosh), SPARC, and NS32016.
LINUX is tied fairly closely to the 80x86. Not the way to go.
Don`t get me wrong, I am not unhappy with LINUX. It will get all the people
who want to turn MINIX in BSD UNIX off my back. But in all honesty, I would
suggest that people who want a **MODERN** "free" OS look around for a
microkernel-based, portable OS, like maybe GNU or something like that.
Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)
P.S. Just as a random aside, Amoeba has a UNIX emulator (running in user
space), but it is far from complete. If there are any people who would
like to work on that, please let me know. To run Amoeba you need a few
386s, one of which needs 16M, and all of which need the WD Ethernet card.
Correct!
Did you know?Below is Andrew Tanenbaum's famous 1992 comp.os.minix newsgroup posting in which he criticizes Linux's monolithic kernel as well as Linus Torvald's first response in a very long thread.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: LINUX is obsolete
Date: 29 Jan 92 12:12:50 GMT
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
I was in the U.S. for a couple of weeks, so I haven't commented much on
LINUX (not that I would have said much had I been around), but for what
it is worth, I have a couple of comments now.
As most of you know, for me MINIX is a hobby, something that I do in the
evening when I get bored writing books and there are no major wars,
revolutions, or senate hearings being televised live on CNN. My real
job is a professor and researcher in the area of operating systems.
As a result of my occupation, I think I know a bit about where operating
are going in the next decade or so. Two aspects stand out:
1. MICROKERNEL VS MONOLITHIC SYSTEM
Most older operating systems are monolithic, that is, the whole operating
system is a single a.out file that runs in 'kernel mode.' This binary
contains the process management, memory management, file system and the
rest. Examples of such systems are UNIX, MS-DOS, VMS, MVS, OS/360,
MULTICS, and many more.
The alternative is a microkernel-based system, in which most of the OS
runs as separate processes, mostly outside the kernel. They communicate
by message passing. The kernel's job is to handle the message passing,
interrupt handling, low-level process management, and possibly the I/O.
Examples of this design are the RC4000, Amoeba, Chorus, Mach, and the
not-yet-released Windows/NT.
While I could go into a long story here about the relative merits of the
two designs, suffice it to say that among the people who actually design
operating systems, the debate is essentially over. Microkernels have won.
The only real argument for monolithic systems was performance, and there
is now enough evidence showing that microkernel systems can be just as
fast as monolithic systems (e.g., Rick Rashid has published papers
comparing Mach 3.0 to monolithic systems) that it is now all over but
the shoutin`.
MINIX is a microkernel-based system. The file system and memory
management are separate processes, running outside the kernel. The I/O
drivers are also separate processes (in the kernel, but only because the
brain-dead nature of the Intel CPUs makes that difficult to do otherwise).
LINUX is a monolithic style system. This is a giant step back into the
1970s. That is like taking an existing, working C program and rewriting
it in BASIC. To me, writing a monolithic system in 1991 is a truly poor
idea.
2. PORTABILITY
Once upon a time there was the 4004 CPU. When it grew up it became an
8008. Then it underwent plastic surgery and became the 8080. It begat
the 8086, which begat the 8088, which begat the 80286, which begat the
80386, which begat the 80486, and so on unto the N-th generation. In
the meantime, RISC chips happened, and some of them are running at over
100 MIPS. Speeds of 200 MIPS and more are likely in the coming years.
These things are not going to suddenly vanish. What is going to happen
is that they will gradually take over from the 80x86 line. They will
run old MS-DOS programs by interpreting the 80386 in software. (I even
wrote my own IBM PC simulator in C, which you can get by FTP from
ftp.cs.vu.nl = 192.31.231.42 in dir minix/simulator.) I think it is a
gross error to design an OS for any specific architecture, since that is
not going to be around all that long.
MINIX was designed to be reasonably portable, and has been ported from
the Intel line to the 680x0 (Atari, Amiga, Macintosh), SPARC, and NS32016.
LINUX is tied fairly closely to the 80x86. Not the way to go.
Don`t get me wrong, I am not unhappy with LINUX. It will get all the people
who want to turn MINIX in BSD UNIX off my back. But in all honesty, I would
suggest that people who want a **MODERN** "free" OS look around for a
microkernel-based, portable OS, like maybe GNU or something like that.
Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)
P.S. Just as a random aside, Amoeba has a UNIX emulator (running in user
space), but it is far from complete. If there are any people who would
like to work on that, please let me know. To run Amoeba you need a few
386s, one of which needs 16M, and all of which need the WD Ethernet card.
4. Linus Trovalds decided to call his system by which of the following name before it became popularly known as 'Linux'?
a. LIGNUX
b. FREAK
c. MINUX
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is B.
Did you know?
Torvalds originally gave his new operating system the working name Linux (from Linus' MINIX). However, he thought the name was too egotistical and thus planned to call it Freax (a combination of free, freak and MINIX). However, Lemmke created a directory for it called linux on his FTP (file transfer protocol) server, and thus Linux became the name of the system.
Correct!
Did you know?
Torvalds originally gave his new operating system the working name Linux (from Linus' MINIX). However, he thought the name was too egotistical and thus planned to call it Freax (a combination of free, freak and MINIX). However, Lemmke created a directory for it called linux on his FTP (file transfer protocol) server, and thus Linux became the name of the system.
5. When was the now popular mail by Linus Trovalds, announcing his new OS written to the comp.os.minix group?
a. 1980
b. 1989
c. 1991
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is C.
Did you know?On August 25, 1991, Linus Trovalds announced his initial creation on the MINIX newsgroup comp.os.minix as follows:
Message-ID: 1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.helsinki.fi
From: torvalds@klaava.helsinki.fi (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
To: Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Hello everybody out there using minix-
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386 (486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-sytem due to practical reasons)among other things.
I've currently ported bash (1.08) an gcc (1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that i'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people want.
Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus Torvalds torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi
Correct!
Did you know?On August 25, 1991, Linus Trovalds announced his initial creation on the MINIX newsgroup comp.os.minix as follows:
Message-ID: 1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.helsinki.fi
From: torvalds@klaava.helsinki.fi (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
To: Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Hello everybody out there using minix-
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386 (486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-sytem due to practical reasons)among other things.
I've currently ported bash (1.08) an gcc (1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that i'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people want.
Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus Torvalds torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi
.
Linux Special Quiz is best viewed in Firefox.
Compiled by Shane