MiNT
Encyclopedia
MiNT is a free software
alternative operating system
kernel for the Atari ST
and its successors. Together with the free system components fVDI (device driver
s), XaAES
(GUI
widgets), and TeraDesk (a file manager
), MiNT provides a free TOS
compatible replacement OS that is capable of multitasking
.
MiNT was originally released by Eric Smith as "MiNT is Not TOS" (a play on "GNU's Not Unix"
). Atari adopted MiNT as an official alternative kernel with the release of the Atari Falcon
, slightly altering the MiNT acronym into "MiNT is Now TOS". Atari bundled MiNT with AES 4.0 (a multitasking version of GEM
) under the name MultiTOS. After Atari left the computer market, MiNT development has been continued by a core of volunteers. Nowadays the official name has been changed to "FreeMiNT" upon request by Eric Smith. The reason for this was to distinguish it from the versions that were released by Atari.
There are several distribution
s, most notably the RPM
-based SpareMiNT
as well as the Debian
GNU/MiNT porting
effort.
MiNA Germany had always been an Atari stronghold so it was not surprising that most Atari software development was happening here. One of the projects to create a new AES was initiated by programmer Martin Osieka. He had previously created WINX which was a TOS extension that both provided some bugfixes as well as offered some nice new features, some of which was not yet seen even in the last AES 4.1 from Atari. To cover the need for a new user interface for MiNT, Martin started working on a project called MiNA. Unsurprisingly, this was an acronym for "MiNA Is Not the AES". While enthusiastic Atari magazines had stated that over 50 developers had teamed up helping Osieka with the project, things came to a grinding halt when his Atari machine broke.
N.AES Also located in Germany, in 1994 Jens Hiescher started a similar project that was originally named Signum. This project progressed so nicely that German company Overscan bought it and released it commercially under the name N.AES. N. AES had its final release in the late 90's and at the time it had become a very robust AES for MiNT, and included a number of innovations compared to the ancient AES 4.1 from Atari. To mention a few of them, users now had access to keyboard shortcuts for window gadgets, possibility to hide applications, and optional hiding of the menu bar. The latter saved the user some screen space, as the menu bar would disappear when the mouse was moved outside of its limits.
oAESis Another project was started 1995 in Sweden, by Christer Gustavsson. The project was oAESis, and it did actually progress into a somewhat usable project. Even if this AES looked promising enough, the end product never reached a fully mature and stable state. After some time, the project was incorporated within a bigger plan. OSIS was an effort to create an Atari TOS/GEM compatible environment for Linux, constisting of the subsystems oTOSis (TOS/MiNT replacement), oAESis (AES replacement), oVDIsis (VDI replacement) and oFBis (a framebuffer library). On a funny side note, the name OSIS is also Swedish slang for "bad luck". The project progressed until around year 2000, when it seemed like the involved programmers were losing interest and time to keep things going.
XaAES Also started in 1995, there was XaAES. The UK programmer Craig Graham was frustrated that there was no decent user interface that could take advantage of the power of the pre-emptive multitasking in MiNT.
MyAeS is another AES project, it was started in May 2003 in France, by Olivier Landemarre. First public version was available in February 2004.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
alternative operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
kernel for the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
and its successors. Together with the free system components fVDI (device driver
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
s), XaAES
XaAES
XaAES is a graphical user interface for the OS kernel FreeMiNT. MiNT is aimed at systems that are compatible with 16/32 bit Atari computers such as the ST, TT or Falcon...
(GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
widgets), and TeraDesk (a file manager
File manager
A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files are: create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy, delete, search/find, and modify file attributes, properties...
), MiNT provides a free TOS
Atari TOS
TOS is the operating system of the Atari ST range of computers. This range includes the 520 and 1040ST, their STF/M/FM and STE variants and the Mega ST/STE. Later, 32-bit machines were developed using a new version of TOS, called MultiTOS, which allowed multitasking...
compatible replacement OS that is capable of multitasking
Computer multitasking
In computing, multitasking is a method where multiple tasks, also known as processes, share common processing resources such as a CPU. In the case of a computer with a single CPU, only one task is said to be running at any point in time, meaning that the CPU is actively executing instructions for...
.
MiNT was originally released by Eric Smith as "MiNT is Not TOS" (a play on "GNU's Not Unix"
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
). Atari adopted MiNT as an official alternative kernel with the release of the Atari Falcon
Atari Falcon
The Atari Falcon030 Computer System was Atari Corporation's final computer product. Codenamed Sparrow, the machine was based on a Motorola 68030 main CPU, and had a Motorola 56000 digital signal processor, a feature which distinguished it from most other microcomputers of the era.-History:The...
, slightly altering the MiNT acronym into "MiNT is Now TOS". Atari bundled MiNT with AES 4.0 (a multitasking version of GEM
Graphical Environment Manager
GEM was a windowing system created by Digital Research, Inc. for use with the CP/M operating system on the Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors...
) under the name MultiTOS. After Atari left the computer market, MiNT development has been continued by a core of volunteers. Nowadays the official name has been changed to "FreeMiNT" upon request by Eric Smith. The reason for this was to distinguish it from the versions that were released by Atari.
There are several distribution
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
s, most notably the RPM
RPM Package Manager
RPM Package Manager is a package management system. The name RPM variously refers to the .rpm file format, files in this format, software packaged in such files, and the package manager itself...
-based SpareMiNT
SpareMiNT
SpareMiNT is a distribution of MiNT, a TOS-compatible operating system for Atari ST computers....
as well as the Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
GNU/MiNT porting
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
effort.
AES for MiNT
Geneva The only known AES project from the US was contributed by programmer Dan Wilga of Gribnif software. The initial aim of Geneva was to provide a multitasking AES for users of TOS, but since TOS itself did not host any multitasking capabilities this only allowed for co-operative multitasking. The first release of Geneva back in June 1993 instead allowed all Atari users to multitask their GEM applications without using up much at all of their precious RAM. It was a commercial product, often bundled with the highly regarded desktop replacement NeoDesk. Geneva could however be run together with MiNT, then offering true pre-emptive multitasking. While this combination initially was not very stable, the last release helped improve that situation a lot.MiNA Germany had always been an Atari stronghold so it was not surprising that most Atari software development was happening here. One of the projects to create a new AES was initiated by programmer Martin Osieka. He had previously created WINX which was a TOS extension that both provided some bugfixes as well as offered some nice new features, some of which was not yet seen even in the last AES 4.1 from Atari. To cover the need for a new user interface for MiNT, Martin started working on a project called MiNA. Unsurprisingly, this was an acronym for "MiNA Is Not the AES". While enthusiastic Atari magazines had stated that over 50 developers had teamed up helping Osieka with the project, things came to a grinding halt when his Atari machine broke.
N.AES Also located in Germany, in 1994 Jens Hiescher started a similar project that was originally named Signum. This project progressed so nicely that German company Overscan bought it and released it commercially under the name N.AES. N. AES had its final release in the late 90's and at the time it had become a very robust AES for MiNT, and included a number of innovations compared to the ancient AES 4.1 from Atari. To mention a few of them, users now had access to keyboard shortcuts for window gadgets, possibility to hide applications, and optional hiding of the menu bar. The latter saved the user some screen space, as the menu bar would disappear when the mouse was moved outside of its limits.
oAESis Another project was started 1995 in Sweden, by Christer Gustavsson. The project was oAESis, and it did actually progress into a somewhat usable project. Even if this AES looked promising enough, the end product never reached a fully mature and stable state. After some time, the project was incorporated within a bigger plan. OSIS was an effort to create an Atari TOS/GEM compatible environment for Linux, constisting of the subsystems oTOSis (TOS/MiNT replacement), oAESis (AES replacement), oVDIsis (VDI replacement) and oFBis (a framebuffer library). On a funny side note, the name OSIS is also Swedish slang for "bad luck". The project progressed until around year 2000, when it seemed like the involved programmers were losing interest and time to keep things going.
XaAES Also started in 1995, there was XaAES. The UK programmer Craig Graham was frustrated that there was no decent user interface that could take advantage of the power of the pre-emptive multitasking in MiNT.
MyAeS is another AES project, it was started in May 2003 in France, by Olivier Landemarre. First public version was available in February 2004.