5 ms·

Good a time as any to ask if anyone has come across the sources for the OS. Bob Supnik has been looking for it a long time for simh. The story is it disappeared

Good a time as any to ask if anyone has come across the sources for the OS. Bob Supnik has been looking for it a long time for simh. The story is it disappeared at some point into the bowels of the company that took over the service contracts for these machines. Possibly Indian. Anyone know for sure or have any contacts?

gjvc 5y ago
No idea, but you might find someone who could help via a google search for ...b5000 emulator burroughs...
tralarpa 5y ago
> if anyone has come across the sources for the OS Wouldn't that be this one? http://www.phkimpel.us/B5500/webSite/SoftwareRequest.html http://www.phkimpel.us/B5500/webSite/SoftwareRequest.html
- jbdigriz990 5y ago
  Looks like it. I guess my info was a little stale. Thanks for the link!
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    I remember at CCE (consumer electronics company in Brazil) they had an A-6 with hot failover to a bank’s A-10 across the street. It was pretty normal to see the MCP guru reading the source code for the OS (in ALGOL).
pjmlp 5y ago
Given that Burroughs OSes are still being sold as part of Unisys ClearPath MCP (naturally not 1:1 with 1960's), I doubt Unisys would be that happy.
- Cullinet 5y ago
  "Burroughs software was designed to run only on proprietary hardware. For this reason, Burroughs was free to distribute the source code of all software it sold, including the MCP, which was designed with this openness in mind. " so it should be around : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_MCP https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_MCP
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    Should we really try to run Tron’s villain? It’s no coincidence Alan Kay, Bonnie McBird’s husband, was working at Unisys when she wrote the script.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  You can download an official emulator from their website. It’s proprietary and runs on Windows, and you have to sign a license promising you’ll only use it for development. But I have to warn you: It is one of the most user hostile OSs I’ve have ever seen. If anyone thinks vi or Emacs are hard, they should play with CANDE.
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    Part of the technical school tranship was on OS/400 state of the art in early 1990's doing system backups to tapes, I also did my typing exam for computing in PCs running MS-DOS 3.3 with edlin, I think CANDE is manageable. :)
    - rbanffy 5y ago
      > I think CANDE is manageable. CANDE is not software you use. It's software you fight and submit to your will. It's a bit like Emacs, but made by people with 4-digit IQs, for people with 4-digit IQs.
- nigwil_ 5y ago
  Unisys has been very supportive of our efforts to find and preserve early Burroughs software and generously provided corporate time to arrange licensing and provide copies of anything they still had. Burroughs B5000 series now has a rich library of software and several emulator implementations (web-browser, simh and standalone). However the B6000/7000 family software recovery is sparse with critical pieces still missing, we are unable to bootstrap a working MCP as yet.

gjvc 5y ago

No idea, but you might find someone who could help via a google search for ...b5000 emulator burroughs...

tralarpa 5y ago

> if anyone has come across the sources for the OS Wouldn't that be this one? http://www.phkimpel.us/B5500/webSite/SoftwareRequest.html http://www.phkimpel.us/B5500/webSite/SoftwareRequest.html

jbdigriz990 5y ago
Looks like it. I guess my info was a little stale. Thanks for the link!
- rbanffy 5y ago
  I remember at CCE (consumer electronics company in Brazil) they had an A-6 with hot failover to a bank’s A-10 across the street. It was pretty normal to see the MCP guru reading the source code for the OS (in ALGOL).

pjmlp 5y ago

Given that Burroughs OSes are still being sold as part of Unisys ClearPath MCP (naturally not 1:1 with 1960's), I doubt Unisys would be that happy.

Cullinet 5y ago
"Burroughs software was designed to run only on proprietary hardware. For this reason, Burroughs was free to distribute the source code of all software it sold, including the MCP, which was designed with this openness in mind. " so it should be around : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_MCP https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_MCP
- rbanffy 5y ago
  Should we really try to run Tron’s villain? It’s no coincidence Alan Kay, Bonnie McBird’s husband, was working at Unisys when she wrote the script.
rbanffy 5y ago
You can download an official emulator from their website. It’s proprietary and runs on Windows, and you have to sign a license promising you’ll only use it for development. But I have to warn you: It is one of the most user hostile OSs I’ve have ever seen. If anyone thinks vi or Emacs are hard, they should play with CANDE.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Part of the technical school tranship was on OS/400 state of the art in early 1990's doing system backups to tapes, I also did my typing exam for computing in PCs running MS-DOS 3.3 with edlin, I think CANDE is manageable. :)
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    > I think CANDE is manageable. CANDE is not software you use. It's software you fight and submit to your will. It's a bit like Emacs, but made by people with 4-digit IQs, for people with 4-digit IQs.
nigwil_ 5y ago
Unisys has been very supportive of our efforts to find and preserve early Burroughs software and generously provided corporate time to arrange licensing and provide copies of anything they still had. Burroughs B5000 series now has a rich library of software and several emulator implementations (web-browser, simh and standalone). However the B6000/7000 family software recovery is sparse with critical pieces still missing, we are unable to bootstrap a working MCP as yet.