Way before Linux, there was Minix. This was a home grown OS built on x86 machines that was used as a teaching tool when the old 386 machines started to support non-segmented memory. I had to use this in my MS degree program and it was pretty cool for it's day - probably the late '80s or so. Booted off a floopy, had it's own compiler and everything. I think we had to write device drivers or some such nonsense in C. It used the standard Unix APIs way before the term POSIX appeared. That was when computers were fun. Now it's just pain and suffering watching our knowledge and experience just "drift" overseas along with the jobs.

For this Linux history buffs, I think Linus mentions Minix in one of his first "comments" upon starting the Linux adventure.

By the way, I moved to Apple. It's based upon FreeBSD and the Mach kernel - I feel more comfortable with the Unix world than dealing with the dark arts of M$.

Now, back to straights...