Re: Not numbered backups anymore - LISP OS instead?

I have one of these Genera Laptops too, I also have about 20 Genera 8
manuals (I'm missing a few, if anybody has some and are willing to part
with them for a reasonable price I'd be interested in completing my
collection, I'm specifically looking for the systems and clim volumes).

I haven't had as much time to dig into this system but I do plan on doing
so as there's a lot of secrets I would like to discover and bring into my
modern project in Lispworks. I have Lispworks running 24/7 on my machine
and I work in it every day.

I've got a commercial product I built in Lispworks (I've been building
software for over 30 years, and to say it's hyper productive, is an
understatement) and I completely understand why people are longing for the
features they are talking about in this sub.

I have a long list of ideas on how to bring Genera into the modern world,
bad they all involve hiring 50+ of the smartest CL devs in the world. I do
have an idea of a pocket genera machine, think old palm tops. Not so much
as a machine to be productive on, but more as a thinking platform. I think
there was a lot lost with these machines, but because they haven't kept
pace what was lost is now left behind. For one even if I could build a
modern web browser on this system, it would be a security nightmare. These
systems are from a time when security was not taken seriously (and with my
background in red teaming, I can tell you it's still not taken all that
seriously in a lot of cases today), it was a time when people were trusted.
One day when I move back into land and I have the means, I would love to
get my hands on the last two models of Symbolics machines.

I also want to dig into the documentation system on these machines to see
what might be possible to bring into Lispworks.

Sadly I'm just one person and I'm already doing the work of a small team on
my commercial product, but once I can master cloning or time travel (which
ever comes first), I have a lot of work I'd like to do.

I saw the numbered file backups briefly flash by and I thought, this user
wants Genera!

Thank you all for the infectious enthusiasm, I thought I was the only mad
person left in the world.

Regards,

Eben Bruyns


On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 at 19:42, 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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