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

[chris]

On 01/04/22 23:40, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 1/4/22 5:59 PM, chris wrote:
>> On 01/03/22 12:18, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 1/3/22 4:22 AM, Bob Eager wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 02 Jan 2022 16:53:55 -0500, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Sadly, language has little to do with it. Too much of the DEC stuff is
>>>>> still proprietary and trade secret locked. Last I heard that was the
>>>>> reason why neither NetBSD or OpenBSD ever had a functioning X11.
>>>>
>>>> I find that hard to believe. I am using X11 on FreeBSD right now,
>>>> and the
>>>> projects overlap quite a bit.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> FreeeBSD does not run on a VAX so that really has nothing to do with
>>> the discussion. It is the VAX video hardware that is not supported
>>> under NetBSD and, especially at this point, probably never will be.
>>>
>>> bill
>>>
>>
>> If you look at some early X11 sources, there is code to drive dec
>> frame buffer hardware, so there is info out there and probably more
>> if you have access to VMS or Ultrix 32 sources. Not impossible to
>> reverse engineer from that.
>
> If you have Ultrix32 and VMS sources and you work from them you
> are not reverse-engineering and anything you use those sources
> for would still be encumbered,

Not suggesting that you should copy the code, but rather as an aid to
understanding how the hardware works. Still encumbered perhaps, but
it's now so old I doubt if anyone would care if someone wrote new
drivers for the hardware. Istr, there's loads of info in the public
domain on VCB... series qbus frame buffers out there, at least for
the mono versions, if not the GPX series boards. All i'm saying is
that you need to think creatively if you want to keep obsolete
historical hardware working.

>
>>
>> Some of the very earliest work on X11 was done on a VS100 (aka, Vax 725)
>> with E&S frame buffer...
>
> It has nothing to do with the availability of X-11 sources. It is the
> information regarding the DEC hardware that is not publicly available.

Well it does in fact, since some of the X11 sources do include frame
buffer drivers for DEC hardware. X11 is open source so it would be
fine to use any info in that to modify or write fresh code.

>
> I am sure some people have fudged around and made some of it work. But
> until it is free (which will never happen) you will never see a any
> serious development of X-11 for the remaining legal free VAX OSes.
>
> Too bad they never did a port of Plan9 for the VAX. :-)


Would have been interesting to have a play with that. Worked for AT&T
wireless many years ago and it was big news at the time...

>
> bill
>