[Info-vax] [OT] Mentec, was: Re: OT: For MAC Lovers Only :-)

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <k5gqia$gep$2 at iltempo.update.uu.se>,
	Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:
> On 2012-10-14 16:33, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> In article <k5e32j$too$1 at dont-email.me>,
>> 	Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:
>>> On 2012-10-13, Bill Gunshannon <billg999 at cs.uofs.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Mentec maintained all of them but since there demise, no one is.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Yes and no.
>>>
>>> Read the latest thread in alt.sys.pdp11 as this is currently been
>>> discussed.
>>
>> Not only reading it, but I started it!!
>>
>> What I said pretty much stands, unless oyu have data you are not
>> providing.  Since the demise of Mentec there has been no news on
>> the PDP-11 OSes at all.  If they are developing them it is in a
>> locked closet with nothing seeing the light of day.  And there is
>> no published way of acquiring any of them.
>>
>> As I have said in the past, I fear this is yet another piece of our
>> history that is about to be lost.  I have a two volume set of books
>> containing hundreds of PDP-11 programs.  While none of these are
>> likely to have any commercial value they are all of historical
>> interest. And they all appear to have been lost.
>>
>> If HP still controls the distribution (espcially of the sources) and
>> someone here has an in at HP, it would really be great to drop a bug
>> in the right ear to get this stuff released if for no other reason
>> than to preserve it.  My interest goes further than that, though. I
>> realize it has no particular real commercial value, but I have always
>> been very fond of RSTS.  I would love to port it to the x86just for
>> the fun of it.  And then see how far it could be expanded.  X11. TCP.
>> Who knows what.....  :-)
> 
> While I can't comment on RT-11 much, I'm doing a lot of that stuff for 
> RSX... But still on a PDP-11. I don't think porting to some other 
> hardware would be very easy, and I can't see the point. At this time you 
> might as well run a PDP-11 emulator, and you're set.

Well, it's like I said, there is no future commercial value in any of
the PDP-11 OSes.  The PDP-11 is not coming back.  But it would be fun
to see just what was possible.  Unix started on the PDP-11 and look at
what it does today.  Staying on an emulator limits you to the capabilities
of a 30 year old processor.  I would like to see it do more, just for the
fun of it.  And being retired, I now have the time to do things that I
want to do just for fun.  :-)

> 
> If I ever manage to help get a new release of RSX out, expect lots of 
> new fun stuff, though...

I have no doubt.  But I have limited experience with RSX and as I said,
RSTS was always my favorite.

But I will also add that when I heard of the sale of the IP by Mentec
I was pleasantly surprised.  I now am of the opinion that no one will
ever see any of this and the last PDP-11 OSes will go the way of IAS.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>