Mentec Hobbyist Licenses for PDP11 stuff!!!!

From: Daniel T, Burrows <dburrows_at_netpath.net>
Date: Tue Feb 5 22:41:50 2002

I have seen the licenses and from what I recall there is no connection in
any manner to DECUS. I FTP'd what I think will be the final RT11 release a
week or 2 ago and the person there now just needs a little time to review
the contents before the release will be formally announced. He was
planning to have it done by the end of January but various things came
up. Thankfully none of them were as bad as what put me behind on getting
them what part I did. Tim Shoppa did most of it before he changed jobs. (
I had a major fire last January that destroyed my office and
storage. Added to that a divorce a few months later.) You do not want to
know how much DEC stuff was destroyed in the fire - at least 3 loaded semi
trailers worth.

Please do not bombard them with requests yet. It will be on the web site
and I will put something here when it is officially available.

The RT11 release will be the first. RSX and the RSTS to follow. I need
time as I need to get a VAX configured to read the images I have for those
releases as they are in VMS TPC format. I have all the stuff I need but
time. I want the RSX and RSTS images in the same format as the RT11 one.
The RT11 images are directly readable with RSX11M+ VCP and John Wilson's
PUTR. There are lot of images going back to IIRC RT11 V2B.

If anyone knows the format of TPC and how it compares to RSX VCP, I would
be real interested in a routine to convert them without having to write all
these images out to real media and then reading them back in on an RSX box.
This would get the RSX and RSTS releases out faster.

All the different versions that have been located that are at least 1
release back from current are included. ( Some things are 2 releases back
) Basically I know there are no Y2K versions in the hobbyist release.

Also if anyone has any original releases of RT11, RSX11, RSX11M+, RSTS
please let me know what you have so I can see if I already have images. If
I don't have it, I would like to get a copy so it can be included. These
need to be virgin distribution images. Obviously the RT11 ones I would
need VERY soon. ( meaning this week.) The RSX and RSTS in the next couple
months.

I can handle the images ZIPped as attachments but please not more than a
few megs at a time without asking me first - I really don't want to be
downloading several megs to my laptop on a slow hotel connection when I am
on a service call. I can also deal with most media type if you can't make
the images. I do not have everything I used to but I have replaced a lot.

I and others wanted to include some of the things like Alan Baldwin's TCP
stack or pointers to web sites but that is a not a possibility for various
reasons. I know this will mean a lot of extra traffic here and on the
PDP11 news groups.
It will be a ISO9660 CD with a bunch of images in obvious directories. The
only thing officially approved that is not a DEC/Mentec OS image is John
Wilson's PUTR and he has graciously sent the required letter officially
permitting it.



Thanks
Dan

At 05:20 PM 2/5/2002, you wrote:
>On Feb 5, 13:22, Bill Bradford wrote:
> > YAY! Party time.
>
> > > The quick answer is yes we are. We are at present proposing to release
>a
> > > Hobbyists License Agreement with CD-ROM containing the software for
>the
> > > various PDP-11 Operating Systems.
>
>Great news! Now all I have to hope for is that it won't depend on a UK
>DECUS membership (UK (ex-)members of DECUS will know what I mean; it's much
>harder and more expensive to get a VMS hobbyist license in the UK than just
>about anywhere else.)
>
>--
>Pete Peter Turnbull
> Network Manager
> University of York
Received on Tue Feb 05 2002 - 22:41:50 GMT