[TUHS] VMS C / Whitesmiths

[TUHS] VMS C / Whitesmiths

[Ron Natalie]

At Rutgers Newark, we had VMS system that had Whitesmith's C on it.     At one point, Whitesmiths decided to "fight piracy" by sending you a sticker you were supposed to stick on the front of your computer to show that you had a licensed copy.    I suppose I might have been in trouble if the Whitesmiths police came to my machine room.     I was a bit miffed when one of the other employees actually stuck the thing to the machine.

Years later I was loosely affiliated with Unipress.   I did some consulting for them when I was between jobs.    I went out to dinner with their principal, a man named Mark Krieger.   After a bit of conversation it occurred to me.   "Didn't you get booed off the stage at the University of Delaware UNIX users group meeting."    He admitted he had, he was half of Whitesmiths with Paul Plauger.   It then came back to me about Idris and the software stamps.   I mentioned the stamps and he said he was gone by then but that was his sign that Plauger had gone over the edge.    I carefully peeled our sticker off the Vax and gave it to him the next time I saw him.