[Info-vax] An alternative history of computing

[Scott Dorsey]

Dave Froble  <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>
>Regardless, the claim was "(the DECnet specification was freely 
>available)"  The claim was never "open", and definitely not "open 
>software".  I don't know how "freely" it was, but I do know there was 
>DECnet implementations on other than VMS.

The Phase IV documentation is enough to build a working decnet client
to move packets back and forth.

The higher stuff like mail is not as well documented.  It would be hard
to do it without the fiche, I think.  But a lot of people did it, including
Sun and IBM.  They may have used the fiche.

Back in the eighties, the attitudes toward locking down software were
rather different than they are today.  Many manufacturers still thought
of operating systems as a free bonus they included to help them sell
hardware.  Why would someone pirate it?  They'd have to have a machine to
run it on anyway.
--scott

-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."