Re: Not numbered backups anymore - LISP OS instead?

I think this is far off topic enough that we should take this discussion off the list.

Nevertheless, see below.

  - Gary


> On Feb 17, 2026, at 1:13 AM, Syed Zaeem Hosain <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Gary,
> 
> Thanks for all your work in maintaining those systems! Some questions though ...
> 
> First, when you say you ported the emulator for Genera and the VLM to MacOS, I assume you are referring to the Intel version of the Apple computers (even though you mentioned Arm64)?

The VLM runs natively on Apple silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4/M5…) as well as Intel Macs.

On my Mac mini with an M4 Pro processor, the VLM is approximately 150 times faster than an XL1200 but about 1/10th the speed of native Lisps (i.e., SBCL and LispWorks).

On X, formerly Twitter, I wrote a thread on what it took to get the VLM running on Apple silicon. (Basically, it required rebuilding Genera from scratch for the first time in over 30 years to change the page size from 4K to 16K words.)

> Second, if the software is going to be available soon for personal use, your comment about it not being made open source is a bit disconcerting to me, TBH.

When you install Genera, it will include most, but not all, of the system sources. The license does not permit you to redistribute any sources or use them for anything not permitted by the license. We will provide access to the restricted sources when necessary on explicit request.

So, while it’s not open source, it’s not really closed source either as that would imply no access to the source code.

> Because one major point about the Lisp Machine environment wasthe availability of the source. Indeed, when Symbolics tried to block others from their additions to the MIT code, Richard Stallman actively wrote (without looking at the Symbolics code) the same functionality into the MIT versions of the LM for a few years, providing his sources openly.
> 
> Plus, when I was programming on a 3600 in those days, my ability to examine the system sources - quite literally down to the microcode - enabled me to learn a ton about how to write better Lisp, frankly! 
> 
> The people who developed those systems were among the foremost computer scientists in the world, and it was really cool to find examples of well-written code that I could learn from.
> 
> So ... any thought to change this "decision"?
> 
> 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
> 
> I am the maintainer of Symbolics Genera and the Virtual Lisp Machine (VLM) emulator. I ported the emulator to both x86_64 and Arm64 processors and Linux and macOS hosts. Previous work on both was done by Kalman Retí after Symbolics went out of business.
> 
> John Mallery owns the intellectual property rights to Genera and the VLM. I expect the software to be made available under a free for personal use license by the end of March. It will not be made open source.
> 
>   - Gary
>  
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