Linux for JavaVM

Gregory Maxwell (nullc@nightshade.ml.org)
Mon, 6 Jan 1997 17:55:59 -0500 (EST)


Has anyone considered the possibility of porting linux to the JavaVM? I
expect that it would run slowly on PC and server little purpose (other
then running linux in linux in linux)... But maby it could make linux a
viable OS for net pcs.... Does anyone know if the JavaVM is robust enough
for this? (is there an MMU and all that) or is it dumbed down and not an
emulation of something like RealHardware(tm)..

On another note: I see to recall a long time back an argument in one of
the comp.os (minix I think) newsgroups where someone told people not to do
work on linux (I think this was around 0.12 or so) because 'Monolithic
kernel design is antiquated' and that it would be IMPOSSIBLE to port linux
to other archs so we would never see it on anything but ix86.... :) lets
see ... Hmmm....
$cd /usr/src/linux/arch
$echo *
alpha i386 m68k mips ppc sparc sparc64
Hmm.. That looks like more then 1.. hehe.. Anyone have a copy of those
newsgroup postings? Anyone know who other party in argument was?

On a third note, is there any work being done on a binary emulatory..
Something of the sort so that a i386 linux bin could be run on an alpha??
I dont have an alpha so it's not very important to me.. But I have seen
quite a few bin-only packages without bins for alpha.. PLEASE no religion
wars over nosource software and Yes, I know that you can cross compile..
This would be unnessassary in a IdealWorld(tm), but in this world we've
got people who should be running W95 (yes, it has it's place however low
it may be) trying to run linux..... An i386emu for the alpha would prob be
helpful even if it was slow.. (Am I wrong or is there no netscape bin for
the alpha?) Is netscape 4.0 going to be realesed for linux at all.. Their
webpage states the unix versions would be out later.. But I've heard
rumors of no NS4 for linux at all.. I emailed netscape a few weeks ago but
got no responce...