Re: Not numbered backups anymore - LISP OS instead?

I have never had the pleasure of working on a Lisp Machine. I came to Lisp in the 90’s, and by then, the Lisp Machine episode had ended.

But I was very much aware of computer architectures in the 80’s, and so I know that Symmetric Multiprocessing was a concept not even invented yet. Virtual Machines were just being explored on desktop machines with the advent of the 68020 CPU. Multi-Core CPU’s were only a dream, even on mainframe hardware.

For me, a computer is useless unless it can control laboratory equipment, collect data, and analyze data - signal and image processing. Or control a music and mixing studio running a DAW (just another form of signal processing).

Those concepts in the 1980’s were at the bleeding edge. And my history with Harlequin Lisp, and follow-ons from 1990 onward, shows that what we have today with Lispworks systems is a pinnacle of workstations for productivity. And with Common Lisp, we have a relatively rich collection of contributors adding to Common Lisp repositories to make Lisp ever more powerful compared to a base Common Lisp system.

So, while intrigued at the possibility of using a Dell Laptop running Genera, I do wonder if that world hasn’t been pinched off into a bubble world that could never compete at my tasks with Lispworks?

- DM

> On Feb 14, 2026, at 03:02, Syed Zaeem Hosain (as Syed dot Hosain at aeris dot net) <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Thanks much!
> 
> FWIW, I have some early Symbolics printed manuals - albeit not a full set (there were 10 volumes, as I recall). For ZetaLisp, not Genera though. Have to find where they are in my storage area ...
> 
> The disk on the Portable Genera system I just received should include the Genera docs, but it is good to have the ones from the site you linked, just in case.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> Z
> 
> Syed Zaeem Hosain | Founder, Chief Evangelist
> Aeris Communications, Inc. <http://www.aeris.com/>
> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
> a: 1731 Technology Drive, Suite 800, San Jose, CA 95110-1360, USA.
> o: +1 408 557-1905 | f: +1 408 557-1925 | twitter: @AerisCTO
> From: Marco Antoniotti <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
> Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2026 01:23 AM
> To: Syed Zaeem Hosain <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
> Cc: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>; Uģis Lācis <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
> Subject: Re: Not numbered backups anymore - LISP OS instead?
>  
> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
> 
> 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] <mailto:[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/>
> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
> a: 1731 Technology Drive, Suite 800, San Jose, CA 95110-1360, USA.
> o: +1 408 557-1905 | f: +1 408 557-1925 | twitter: @AerisCTO
> 
>  
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