[Info-vax] Alternative _legal_ operating systems for VAX ?

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 1/2/2022 3:39 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> Before deleting my simh instances, I thought I would look for
> other operating systems which ran on VAX and try them out.
> 
> The only current one I have found is NetBSD (which certainly has
> a _very_ retro 1980s Unix feel to it. :-)).
> 
> OpenBSD dropped VAX as an architecture a number of years ago.
> 
> Does anyone know of any other operating systems (including any
> experimental ones) for VAX that are still legal to run under simh ?
> 
> If so, do you have any links to them ?

Wikipedia lists BSD 4.3, NetBSD, OpenBSD and something called Xinu
as open source options for VAX.

NetBSD may be the only one with current support. But do you need to run
a current version??

You did not run a current VMS version on it.

And resource wise it may be a better fit for an older OS
anyway.

Alternatively you could take up the Linux VAX port. Some
work was done many years ago and I believe they got pretty
far.

Arne