[Coco] Microware OS-9 for x86

[Frank Swygert]

Proceed with caution definitely! As long as this was kept at a hobbyist level and not used commercially I don't think there would be a problem. If anything Radisys lawyers would issue a "cease and desist" order. To get anything more would require that they prove damages such as loss of revenue. If a company were doing the conversion/rewriting there could be a problem, but they would have a hard time suing a bunch of hobbyists who were doing the conversion for personal use. It would be pretty much not worth the effort or cost to them as they would have a hard time collecting anything. The Gary Kildall (Digital Research)/Bill Gates (Microsoft) suit isn't a good example, that was one relatively successful computer company going after another -- and MS used code from a license they purchased from a third party to create MS-DOS, which was a huge success and for all practical purposes was threatening (and DID!) to put DR out of business since up to then CP/M was the dominant OS. I don't think an X86 port of NOS-9 will be a big threat to Radisys. There's the possibility it could be discovered and reduce some of their legacy system support, but they might welcome that! The main reason I don't think they'd see it as a threat as long as it's on a hobby level is that there is no real support. Now if a company or enterprising individual decided to take it up and offer paid support and marketed it (similar to Linux companies -- free OS, but companies can get paid support from some of the distro companies) as an alternative to a Radisys product I'd think Radisys would have a reason to sue that company, but not necessarily the hobby group that did the work. The hobby group took an obsolete system that is no longer supported and improved/changed it for their personal use, they aren't responsible for what an individual does. In fact, I'd put it under a GPL type license that prohibited commercial use in any form. THAT would protect the bobby group that developed it in this situation -- the fellow who used or attempted to use it commercially also broke the licensing agreement.

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On Wednesday 16 June 2010, Aaron Wolfe wrote:

> >On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Michael Kerpan<mjkerpan at kerpan.com>
>    
>> >>  Given that OS-9 and Nitros-9 are written almost entirely in 6809/6309
>> >>  assembler, I think the chances any code reuse are pretty minimal. Any
>> >>  free x86 version would have to be a rewrite/clone from the ground up.
>> >>  Thus, "Nitros-9 x86" would be in the same boat as Linux or something:
>> >>  perfectly legal.
>>      
> >
> >Potential issues go beyond the 6809 asm.  Consider the contents of the
> >help files, the text seen in included programs, even the basic09
> >language itself.  Then you have the syscalls that form the foundation
> >of the OS, the module format, etc ,etc  Didn't Gary Kildall sue IBM or
> >MS over the way DOS used the same system calls as CP/M?
> >
> >I don't think it's impossible to legally implement "something" that
> >works a lot like OS9, but you must also consider that modern companies
> >sue first and ask questions later.  If Radisys was to take issue with
> >something, even incorrectly, who is going to pay to defend the work?
> >SCO's case against Linux had no merit, but it surely cost IBM, Novell,
> >etc a few bucks to prove that.
> >
> >I would proceed with caution.
>    
-- 
Frank Swygert
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