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

[Craig A. Berry]

On 3/10/20 8:21 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> I wonder, if someone tried to create an open source version of VMS
> from public documentation only, if VSI would somehow try to suppress
> development of it.

Whether they would or whether they can depends on various things,
including, as Hoff mentioned else-thread, the outcome of the Oracle
versus Google matchup.  There's an article here:

<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/before-it-sued-google-for-copying-from-java-oracle-got-rich-copying-ibms-sql/> 


basically pointing out that Oracle did the same thing to IBM by
implementing SQL from published papers that Google did to Sun/Oracle by
reimplementing Java from publised APIs, and akin to what Simon is
proposing to do to VSI via some millions of mythical programmer hours
that don't actually exist.  I think VSI is pretty safe from that
particular threat.

> Think about how Linux is much more functional and cleaner underneath
> when compared to the original versions of Unix,

I've never looked at the Linux kernel, but as far as utilities go, all
the BSD code I've looked at is massively cleaner and easier to read that
all of the GNU code I've looked at.