TITLE: Computers Shouldn't Need a Restart Button (Memories of Minix)
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: October 06, 2016  2:46 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
An oldie but goodie from
<A HREF="http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/reliable-os/">
   Andrew Tanenbaum</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Actually, MINIX 3 and my research generally is **NOT** about
 microkernels.  It is about building highly reliable, self-healing,
 operating systems.  I will consider the job finished when no
 manufacturer anywhere makes a PC with a reset button.  TVs
 don't have reset buttons.  Stereos don't have reset buttons.
 Cars don't have reset buttons.  They are full of software but
 don't need them.  Computers need reset buttons because their
 software crashes a lot.  I know that computer software is
 different from car software, but users just want them both to
 work and don't want lectures why they should expect cars to
 work and computers not to work.  I want to build an operating
 system whose mean time to failure is much longer than the
 lifetime of the computer so the average user never experiences
 a crash.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

 I remember loving MINIX 1 (it was just called Minix then,
 of course) when I first learned it in grad school.  I did
 not have any Unix experience coming out of my undergrad
 and had only begun to feel comfortable with BSD Unix in
 my first few graduate courses.  Then I was assigned to
 teach the Operating Systems course, working with one of
 the CS faculty.  He taught me a lot, but so did Tanenbaum
 -- through Minix.  That is one of the first times I came
 to really understand that the systems we use (the OS, the
 compiler, the DBMS) were just programs that I could tinker
 with, modify, and even write.

 Operating systems is not my area, and I have no expertise
 for evaluating the whole microkernel versus monolith
 debate.  But I applaud researchers like Tanenbaum who are
 trying to create general computer systems that don't need
 to be rebooted.  I'm a user, too.
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