[Coco] OS-9 has a new owner

[Allen Huffman]

On Feb 21, 2013, at 4:15 PM, Boisy G. Pitre <boisy at tee-boy.com> wrote:

> 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).

Also of note, it's not like it's going to folks who don't know or care about OS-9. There are remnants of folks from Microware Japan and Germany offices in the mix.

> 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.

Excellent, Boisy! I am glad you are in the loop. Exciting times may be ahead of us once again.

Keep in mind, folks, there is much lost history with the Microware/OS-9 products. Even during the Microware versus Apple lawsuit of the late 1990s, when endless stacks of Microware history was being collected and sorted through, there were still missing pieces. The source code to many legacy items may simply not exist any more (Boisy once showed me the machine that had it, but years later, that machine was sans hard drive so…)… But there's certainly a fresh start for our beloved OS.

I expect Boisy may have some other tidbits he can pass on once the dust settles. I know I have a piece of hardware I am really looking forward to running OS-9 on, hopefully in the not-too-distant future (assuming they will work out a deal to have evaluation copies available).

		-- Allen