Firstly thank you all for your kind responses. I'm now up to date with the history. Does anybody know what the current status is? Have Mentec abandonded the pdp-11 market or what? If they no longer see any commercial value in the products then why refuse us? If the rights had not been sold then I supose that they would be owned by HP. HP do have a very good VMS hobbyist program. Join HPUG and you can get a FOC license for most things. To round things off. What is the situation with pdp-8's? Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tim Shoppa Sent: 04 May 2007 18:22 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Mentec Al Kossow wrote: If "Recently" is "2000", then yes, I worked extensively with Mentec to make three sets of hobbyist CD's (RT-11, RSX-11, RSTS/E) using my archives and their archives to get bootable kits for emulators. Internally, there was interest, and I discussed it with several at Mentec in the 1996-2001 timeframe as I worked with them on other projects, and it got as far as them having a web page with pictures of the CD's I made for them. But no, not all the legal barriers were jumped, so it never really happened. I don't think anyone truly understands the legal barriers that Mentec faces. They do not own all the stuff free and clear to do with as they wish. In the late 90's, they could not sell a copy of any PDP-11 OS unless they also sold DEC's printed manuals with it, and they were having extreme troubles getting DEC's printed manuals from DEC's print shop. The folks in Mentec who were most enthusiastic about it were really nice, energetic people. I don't have any sore feelings about the work I did back then (I had a blast) but I don't have as much interest in the subject as I did ten years ago. Being out at the CHM last year rekindled it a little... but there's no shortage of truly redistributable and very-few-condition other stuff that I'm worrying about now. Tim.