[Info-vax] Entitled attitudes, was: Re: vax vms licenses

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 3/15/21 2:18 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2021-03-15, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 3/15/21 12:41 PM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>>> In article <ib9gjoFfncaU1 at mid.individual.net>, Bill Gunshannon
>>> <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>>>> I am not familiar with this. Which PDP-11 OS licenses were scrapped?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am running a PiDP11/70 with RSX11M-Plus.
>>>>>
>>>>> There was a hobbyist license from Mentec.
>>>>
>>>> Which does not apply to anything currently in existence.
>>>
>>> But wasn't it scrapped due to abuse?
>>>
>>
>> It was never  formally withdrawn.  It was unnecessary as
>> long before it became an issue it had already become
>> invalid as there was no longer an emulator that met the
>> requirements clearly stated in the License.
>>
> 
> I think Phillip is thinking of the more general hobbyist licence
> that was planned after the limited PDP-11 hobbyist licence that was
> released.

No, I am sure he is thinking of the one that still floats around the
Internet.  The one most people chose to "interpret" to meet their
needs rather than accepting it as it was written.  No real evidence
exists but I, for one, think that attitude contributed to Mentec
deciding in the end to not issue another Hobbyist License.

> 
> That's the one where the discussions were terminated and so nothing
> ever happened. I think you were closer to those discussions or at
> least knew more about them as you have talked about it before IIRC.
> Can you remember the details of what was planned in the follow-on
> licence and the reasons for termination of discussions ?

Nothing was ever said about what a new Hobbyist License would have
looked like but the people who were talking to Mentec were, like me,
owners of hardware we wished to run legally and not just SIMH users.
Even today, when the commercial PDP-11 market is about as dead as it
can get the current owner still doesn't seem interested in letting
it out to Hobbyists.  At least I still have Ultrix-11 to play with
when I feel like turning one of my 11's on.  :-)  The VAX will end
up the same way. NetBSD or OpenBSD.  Hmmm...  Could always try to
find the VAX CP/M stuff and revive that one, too.  :-)

bill