26 Feb
2009
26 Feb
'09
4:38 a.m.
The last I heard of them was a takeover by Calyx. in 2006
I can't see any reference to PDP-11 on the Calyx Website.
So what happened ?
Rod
(Renovates Old Dec)
1 Mar
1 Mar
9:31 p.m.
Rod Smallwood wrote:
The last I heard of them was a takeover by Calyx. in
2006
I can't see any reference to PDP-11 on the Calyx Website.
So what happened ?
Rod
(Renovates Old Dec)
There was a whole discussion on this last year, search the classiccmp
archives from
summer 2008 for references to 'mentec'. My conclusion from that
discussion was that
Mentec-Inc of PDP-11 fame no longer exists as a business, at least on
paper, and the
ownership/rights to the PDP-11 s/w have simply evaporated into the ozone.
Others have maintained that they are still in contact with Mentec-Inc
and are able to
buy PDP-11 licenses if they so desired. Mentec's phone, email, and
website have all
disappeared, so I believe you either need their Stargate address or
possibly an Ouija
board to place an order. Sadly I have neither....
Don
From June 2008 or so....
Don North wrote:
Simon Clubley wrote:
In article <4845dc6b$0$90276$14726298 at
news.sunsite.dk>, "Jerome H.
Fine" <jhfinedp3k at dp3knospamcompsys.to> writes:
The state of New Hampshire lists Mentec as an 'inactive' business, for
what that is worth. See:
https://www.sos.nh.gov/corporate/soskb/Corp.asp?677452
>Rich Alderson wrote:
>> clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) writes:
>> Did you have any luck with that Mentec phone number that I found and
>> posted a few days ago ?
>>
> "Number not in service at this time. No further information is
> available."
>
Rich,
Thank you for checking on this. This would seem to imply that Mentec
are no
longer in existence. However, Jerome's comment below seems to imply that
this may not be the case.
Jerome Fine replies:
Thank you for the update. I have been busy with a few other things
and had not yet
tried.
I have received some additional, but private, information in this
regard. If I receive a
reply and the information is considered public, I will post it.
It certainly is curious that it is so difficult to send a cheque for
just a piece of paper.
The fact that you are still trying to send a cheque after receiving this
information would seem to suggest that someone, somewhere, is still
selling PDP-11 OS licenses.
What I don't understand is why they would not just advertise that fact,
since people obviously still want to buy from them.
I do wonder if the people who do their marketing are ex-DEC
marketing. :-)
Simon. 
10 p.m.
At 9:31 PM -0800 3/1/09, Don North wrote:
Rod Smallwood wrote:
It is still possible to legally buy licenses. I put someone in
contact with one of the people that handles licensing last week. The
decision has been made to not advertise who to talk to, and I respect
this decision. I don't know why this is the case, however, I tend to
suspect it has something to do with some of the hobbyist community.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
The last I heard of them was a takeover by Calyx.
in 2006
I can't see any reference to PDP-11 on the Calyx Website.
So what happened ?
Rod (Renovates Old Dec)
There was a whole discussion on this last year, search the
classiccmp archives from
summer 2008 for references to 'mentec'. My conclusion from that
discussion was that
Mentec-Inc of PDP-11 fame no longer exists as a business, at least
on paper, and the
ownership/rights to the PDP-11 s/w have simply evaporated into the ozone.
Others have maintained that they are still in contact with
Mentec-Inc and are able to
buy PDP-11 licenses if they so desired. Mentec's phone, email, and
website have all
disappeared, so I believe you either need their Stargate address or
possibly an Ouija
board to place an order. Sadly I have neither.... 
10:44 p.m.
On Monday 02 March 2009, Zane H. Healy wrote:
It is still possible to legally buy licenses. I put
someone in
contact with one of the people that handles licensing last week. The
decision has been made to not advertise who to talk to, and I respect
this decision. I don't know why this is the case, however, I tend to
suspect it has something to do with some of the hobbyist community.
So, does this mean that Mentec still exists? Or, is there some other
entity that now handles licensing? And, if it's no longer Mentec, is
there some legal paper trail that proves they bought the rights to
license it?
I find it difficult to understand why anyone would want to minimize
their chance at selling anything (especially something like a license,
which has minimal cost) in this economy. Then again, there's lots of
people that do things that don't make sense to me.
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
5538
days inactive
5542
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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ak6dn＠mindspring.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk