1 Feb
2022
1 Feb
'22
2:45 a.m.
On Jan 31, 2022, at 8:15 PM, Johnny Billquist
<bqt(a)softjar.se> wrote:
On 2022-02-01 01:47, Paul Koning wrote:
Nice!
Yes, the Cyber1.org system had some good luck in a few key spots. The one I just
described is one of them. Another is that the then-owner of the CDC software (BT Systems,
if I remember right) back in 2007 or so not only was willing to give permission to run the
latest release of NOS (from just before 2000, with Y2K patches as well) but actually
supplied a full tape of the entire distribution, OS and "layered products" (or
whatever CDC called those) included. And a manual, so I could run a full install by the
book.
And then, not too many years later, they amended the earlier "you can use this on
Cyber1" permission to be "this is open for any hobbyists non-commercial
use". HPE could learn from these folks.
paul
On Jan
31, 2022, at 7:03 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt(a)softjar.se> wrote:
...
Well. Like I said - I do have the RSX bits. I know he also had/have RSTS/E and RT-11. But
the disks with the layered products were lost at Mentec Inc.
So he owns it legally, but don't have any copies.
I've run into a scenario
like that. It was with PLATO, or by its official name "CYBIS" (since CDC sold
the product to X and the name to Y, sort of like Rolls-Royce selling the name to P and the
factory to Q). We tracked down the current owner and he was willing to give permission to
run a copy of it in emulation with public (non-commercial) access. But he didn't
actually have a copy to hand out.
Then we found an actual running production system, and a system admin who was
exceptionally helpful, willing and able to make a full copy of the system. He even went
through the effort to delete proprietary (customer owned) bits, I sometimes wonder just
how much time that required. Net result: we ended up with legal bits, but the
"legal" and the "bits" came from two places.