On Jun 18, 19:07, Allison J Parent wrote:
Subject: Re: OT -mostly -
<Compare this to modern OSs - windows, macos, etc where the development
pack
<costs hundreds or thousands of dollars extra.
VMS, all of the Unix clones,
All cost extra, unless you mean gcc etc. None of HP/UX, Solaris, IRIX,
AIX, come with more than the minimum required to relink the kernel,
although you can buy the development tools separately.
RT-11 to name a few still provide full
development environment.
That's certainly valid. The exception that proves the rule, perhaps :-)
I'm sure some(I would) here would add CPM
OS9 and even PC based DOS(MS, DRdos, CCPM...). the amount of freeware
or lowcost shareware for DOS/winders is quite impressive and plentyful.
Of all the software out there CPM-80, APPLE and PCdos has the largest
archives, but the PDP-8, -11, VAX archives are getting big.
But does freeware/shareware count? The original point was that the
manufacturers don't provide their tools for free as part of the OS; of
course you can add on any amount of 3rd party free software to virtually
any OS.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York