Re: Not numbered backups anymore - LISP OS instead?

FYI

Here are the manuals for Symbolics, including the documentation for LMFS
and FEPxx.

Neither symbolics-dks nor bitsavers have them.  Interestingly enough,
bitsavers has a .tap file for Symbolics, which, I surmise, is a "tape".
Alas, I do not know how to open it.

Cheers

Marco


https://www.chai.uni-hamburg.de/~moeller/symbolics-info/documentation/index.html

On Sat, Feb 14, 2026 at 7:42 AM Syed Zaeem Hosain (as Syed dot Hosain at
aeris dot net) <[email protected]> wrote:

> Ugis wrote:
> > The term LMFS (Lisp Machine File System) intrigued me, and I did a bit
> of a Googling around ...
>
> > Was amazed to find a whole OS based on LISP and still alive seemingly
> (not sure if sustainable or on life support though ... perhaps Windows
> applications keeps Symbolics afloat):
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genera_(operating_system)
> > http://symbolics-dks.com/
>
> > I wonder if there is any user of it here .. ?
>
> Well, I programmed on a Symbolics 3600 Lisp Machine from 1983 to 1986 and
> loved it!
>
> Sorry to reminisce too much (for those of you getting tired of this
> thread), but that system and environment was *superior *to "modern OS"s
> and languages today (that we are over-discussing in other threads).
>
> Our small team of developers was *easily* ten+ times more productive
> using those systems than *anything* (OS, language, IDE, etc.) that I have
> programmed on since.
>
> Unfortunately, it is not usable for anything today ... clearly! Since
> Symbolics doesn't exist anymore. :(
>
> However, I literally *just* received a Dell laptop that has Portable
> Genera on it - will give it a look for nostalgia than anything else,
> frankly, since the license for Genera is for non-commercial use.
>
> David Schmidt of Symbolics runs that second website, by the way. He
> occasionally puts up working Genera systems for sale if you are on his
> email distribution ... sometimes Symbolics units (old Apple hardware with
> MacIvory cards), and some are Portable Genera on Dell laptops (the one I
> just bought).
>
> And, he sells/licenses a Macsyma version for Windows PCs that are running
> Windows up to Windows XP - check the site!
>
> Regards,
>
> Z
>
> *Syed Zaeem Hosain** | Founder, Chief Evangelist*
>
> *Aeris Communications, Inc. <http://www.aeris.com/>*
>
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>
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