Minix had a proprietary license that forbade distributing altered copies (but not patches, but managing patches "out of tree" was unwieldy). Minix 3 is (I believe) gpl.
So free of any Minix code, means, it's free software, primarily. Not really a slight against Minix, per se.
Re:Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)
by tyingq on Thursday November 01, 2018 @08:00PM
(#18359594)
There was still a bit of a rivalry there. Like this for example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanenbaum–Torvalds_debate
Minix 3 is BSD licensed.
Indeed. And so is minix 1, apparently - since 2000:
Re:Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)
by znaji on Thursday November 01, 2018 @08:53PM
(#18359886)
I'd say most Linux installations today are Android mobiles. Do those have Minix too?
Re:Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)
by tyingq on Thursday November 01, 2018 @10:01PM
(#18360128)
No, but Android does use a different microkernel (LK) as it's bootloader.
It's also likely that Google will replace Linux on Android with Fuschia, yet another microkernel OS, derived from LK.
The Linux kernel is irrelevant for Android userspace as it isn't actually exposed in public APIs.
You might access Linux syscalls and certain paths, but the only guarantee is that it will work on your own device.
That's kind of interesting now. Most Linux installations today coexist with a management processor running Minix. So what was a sort of mild rivalry is now a détente.