12 Mar
2016
12 Mar
'16
12:28 a.m.
On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 1:21 AM, Dave Wade <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> wrote:
[GCOS-8]
Sadly, I doubt it very much. It was still in use on
emulated hardware until relatively recently and I assume BULL was still making money from
it and guarding its assets. Thinkage still have GCOS products listed on their web site.
There's at least some possible future upside to that, which is that if
they are (or recently were) still selling and supporting it, then they
probably still actually have it, vs. the huge amount of software of
historical interest that is already lost. Also, since Group BULL was
willing to make a Multics license available, that may serve as useful
precedent for getting them to offer a similar GCOS license at some
future date when they don't believe it will harm their commercial
interests.