Lyle scores a WIN for our hobby!

[Paul Anderson]

Fantastic!!

Many thanks to Lyle, Jay, and S H!!!

On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 12:22 PM, Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> Several years ago, Lyle Bickley began negotiations with S&H Computer
> Systems
> to release TSX-Plus (a 3rd party Multiuser Operating System for PDP-11's)
> as
> free software for personal use. As is often the case, this process can take
> a lot longer than one would expect.
>
> Once Lyle obtained an initial agreement from the owner of TSX-Plus, he then
> had to await the approval from S&H's Board of Directors. Initially, S&H
> chose to only release the source code listings for TSX-Plus (which are now
> on Bitsavers.org). Unfortunately, the machine readable source code itself
> had been accidentally lost when S&H changed PDP-11 computer systems
> in-house.
>
> Eventually, Lyle was able to obtain the original SMD hard drive from S&H
> containing the latest versions of TSX-Plus, and the layered products
> COBOL-Plus and RTSORT (and other software that remains private to S&H
> Computer Systems). He transferred the TSX-Plus, COBOL-Plus, and RTSORT
> files
> to an RL02 disk - and using S&H's proprietary licensing software created a
> "personal use, serialized version" of TSX-Plus. This version has ALL the
> capabilities and features of the commercially licensed version of TSX-Plus.
>
> Subsequently, Lyle was authorized to release this "Personal Use" TSX-Plus
> distribution only to individuals that he could vouch for as being
> non-commercial users.
>
> After another year or so, he was able to obtain the current agreement and
> license to make this "Personal Use" TSX-Plus distribution generally
> available for non-commercial use.
>
> Please note that TSX-Plus is NOT public domain software; S&H retains all
> rights including ownership. They have provided a free personal use license
> available through Bickley Consulting West. There is still a paid commercial
> use license available directly from S&H.
>
> We all owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders at S&H Computer Systems and his
> Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all vintage
> computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle Bickley for
> tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a huge fan of
> TSX-Plus
> and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks to Lyle.
>
> The distribution is at http://tsxplus.classiccmp.org
>
> Best,
>
> J
>
>
>