Thanks to those who responded publicly and privately to my request for information. It appears that OpenGenera, the port of Genera to the Alpha running Tru64, is the quickest way to gain exposure to the operating system. (Which is why you'll notice my previous messages concerning one of my misbehaving Alphas. The other is running OpenVMS 8.3 -- no touch!) Will try to get my hands on a copy. The hardware -- i.e. a real Symbolics computer or alternatively an Alpha or a Mac with the necessary hard or software -- can be had from the source (David Schimdt) but it's not cheap and he's based in Virginia. Which is not to say that it's not an interesting offer -- I just need to try the OS first! - Alex