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

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2022-01-05 01:29, chris wrote:
> On 01/04/22 23:33, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 1/4/22 5:28 PM, chris wrote:
>>> On 01/02/22 08:39, 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 ?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Simon.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Some old unix distributions, Ultrix32,
>>
>> Ultrix32 is not legal for use without a license which you can not get.
> 
> Well, it's available for free download at the unix historical society,
> for years, so perhaps they organised some agreement to cover that ?.
> Never run it here, but have run Ultrix 11, for evaluation. Does work
> (on an 11/53), but not very stable.

For a PDP-11 I would definitely point at 2.11BSD any day of the week. 
It's really nice and good, and actually pretty useful even for "real" work.

Ultrix-11 or some older BSD would really only be for curiosity.

>>> Iirc,
>>> I installed from 9 track magtape, but can be done via TK50 if you
>>> can find a way to write the tape. I used an Emulex QD33 and UD33
>>> smd disk controllers and disks for the work here.
>>>
>>> All that stuff is available online for free now and probably far
>>> more robust than NetBSD Vax, for example...
>>
>> I really don't see how 4.3 can be more robust than the versions
>> developed from it. :-)
>>
> 
> Perhaps it has improved, but last version run here was 1.01 or
> similar and at that stage neither of the qbus network
> interfaces were stable for long before falling over. Sort of
> worked, but not well. Firmware bug on the network cards, from
> memory. Perhaps I should give it another try...

Around NetBSD 5 or so, it was maybe at its peak. After that it have 
become really problematic.

(NetBSD never had a 1.01 version number, but back in the days when it 
was still at 1.something, Qbus might have not been working that well. 
For now, if someone wants NetBSD on a VAX, I would probably look at 
version 4 or 5. But I do have some kind of hope that things will soon 
improve.)

   Johnny