[Coco] OS-9 has a new owner

[Boisy G. Pitre]

It was announced today that OS-9 has a new owner. Radisys is absolving itself of the product and even the name Microware.

OS-9 will be resurrected by a new company, Microware LP.  This is a Limited partnership formed by OS-9 Distributors Freestation (Japan), Microsys Electronics (Germany) and RTSI LLC (USA).

This means that after some years of dormancy, OS-9 (68K/Intel/PowerPC/ARM/MIPS/SH-4) is going through somewhat of a resurrection.

I phoned the general partner, Allan Batteiger, whom I've known for years, to congratulate him. He runs RTSI and has hosted the RTSI FTP site for years.

We had a good discussion, and I brought up the subject of the NitrOS-9 Project. He is aware of it, of course, and while Microware LP is still in the process of acquiring all of the OS-9 assets, he assured me that within a month or two, we'll discuss how the NitrOS-9 Project can be legitimized. I am going to push for some type of sponsorship from Microware.. not in terms of monetary sponsorship, but legitimization, allowance of the use of the name OS-9 (which is a registered trademark) and some support in terms of mention on their website, etc.

It may also require us actually dropping the "Nitr" and just calling the product "OS-9/6809" or some such. I'm actually in favor of that move.

I'll keep everyone posted about this as things develop.