[Info-vax] Creating an open source version of VMS, was: Re: OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 3/10/2020 9:21 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2020-03-09, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) <helbig at asclothestro.multivax.de> wrote:
>> In article <r4606o$gjl$4 at dont-email.me>, Dave Froble
>> <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
>>>
>>> Define "commercial" ....
>>
>> In this sense, "to make money; for profit".  But that isn't the only
>> restriction in the hobbyist license; it also has to be "personal use".
> 
> Something that did occur to me:
> 
> I wonder, if someone tried to create an open source version of VMS
> from public documentation only,

It has been discussed before.

But reality is this: whenever an open source project ask for somebody
to tape on the VMS support aka maintain a few dozen lines of DCL and
the ifdef fun in a couple of header files, then there is big
silence. Nobody is willing to spend any time actually doing something.

The idea that such a community could write the 10 or 20 million lines
of code to produce an OS is totally unrealistic.

>                                if VSI would somehow try to suppress
> development of it.

> I wonder if VSI would actively try to suppress development of such an
> alternative version of VMS.

Not likely. Why threaten to sue a non starter project.

Arne