This is a community of OS/2 users and not OS/2 corporations.
I don't know about where you live, but here, the law applies equally to individuals and large corporations. The only thing that saves people from prosecution is that it just isn't worth IBM's time, and expense, to do it.
just that a "OS/2 Distro" can be created the same say that UpdCD did, or is it UpdCD illegal?
UpdCD is legal, since it is designed to take a legal copy of OS/2, and create an updated CD. That updated CD is NOT legal, without the original legal CD to go along with it.
If you want to make a new OS/2 Distro, you need to do it in three parts. One, you need the "customer" to have a legal copy of OS/2 (available new, only through IBM, and their agents Serenity systems, who have sub contracted Mensys to handle the transactions). I am not even sure that it is legal to transfer the license from one user to another, but that seems to be ignored by IBM (and the users). Two, you need to have all of the updated parts of OS/2, to replace whatever needs to be updated. Three, you need to add whatever is required that has been created independently of what IBM (or Microsoft) did. Of course, all of that needs to be appropriately licensed.
FWIW, I don't see why it couldn't be done, but somebody will need to do a LOT of work. Give it a shot, and see how you make out. Oh yeah, start with consulting a lawyer, to see what you can, and cannot, do.
The issue with XWorkplace is that it is not a replacement of WPS, it is a extensions of the WPS classes that expands the functionality of WPS child objects. Which means that XWorkplace requires the close source proprietary WPS. That why I agreed and I will support anybody that will like to convert XWorkplace into a WPS replacement by not using the parent WPS classes, but by cloning them.
I agree that in an ideal world, you could clone the WPS. In the real world you haven't got any hope that it will ever happen. There just aren't enough people to do it, unless somebody wins a BIG lottery, and donates a good chunk of it to the cause. So far, that hasn't happened, and even if it does, there are a LOT of other things that need to be done first. It would probably be a 5 year project (even if IBM decided to do it), anyway.
That is a different things QSINIT is a OS2LDR from scratch which is good, even that the source code is public it is not open source. It says it is for "non-commercial use only" which is incompatible with open source. But this is a good project that maybe someday the author will put it under an open source license.
It is open source. Anybody can get the source. Whether they can make any sense out of it is another matter. The "non-commercial use only" is a bit of a puzzle. I am not sure what that really means. Does it mean that no commercial, entity (Ford, GM) can use it? or does it mean that Mensys cannot include it in eCS? I note that it does not mean that governments, charitable organizations, etc. cannot use it. In any case, it is a stupid restriction, and I am pretty sure that it was included because the author doesn't understand how to make a license, and that is probably because he doesn't fully understand English. In any case, he really should adopt one of the official licenses, because it is quite likely that what he is using would be found to be invalid by most courts. All I can say about that, is that it is better than nothing.
?? - A software can be killed?, if so OS/2 and all its brand was killed by its owner, IBM. I don't want to kill it, I want to clone it. The utopian goal is to free it from IBM and from single vendors that comes and goes.
Yes, software can be killed. Sometimes it takes a while, but it can be killed. Some outstanding examples are well known in OS/2 circles. Most of them are the result of not having open source (GENMAC, SIO), but others just get neglected because they become obsolete (doesn't mean that they don't keep on working). If you do manage to get enough developers interested in cloning the WPS, you would first of all, need every one of the people who know something about the WPS. All of them would then need to spend most (if not all) of their time working on that one project, ignoring the other, more important, things like drivers, which are required to keep the OS viable in the short term. After about 5 years of development (I am being very optimistic), the first version of a clone might be available, but by then there would be very few people who haven't moved on (OS/2 cannot survive without updated drivers). Those who do stay with OS/2 will likely be running it on a Virtual Machine, and then it will likely only be one, or two, applications. Other applications, like machine control, don't use the WPS anyway. Why would anybody even care if the WPS has been cloned, but the OS would be effectively "dead".
you think that the future for the platform is drivers, I just disagree on that. I think that a future for the platform is making it open source.
Drivers can be done. Open sourcing the WPS cannot be done. Face the facts, OS/2 has a limited life span. If you take away drivers (and that would be necessary to get enough people to even start thinking about what needs to be done to clone the WPS), you no longer have a base to run the new WPS on. It would be necessary to convert it to some sort of Linux thing (which may not be all bad, but...), and that would be counter productive. I still believe that in 5 years, the desktop computer, and laptops, as we know them, will be in the history books. OS/2 is not suited to what is currently replacing those things, and the WPS would need further modifications, that would make it unrecognizable. To do that, would require a LOT more people than the OS/2 platform has available, and it should have started about 10 years ago.
If you really think that you want to clone the WPS, the first step is to document everything that it does. Even that will take a long time, and I would bet that you can't do it, because no one person (or even 100 users) will know all of the features, and capabilities. You may come up with a reasonable sub set, that most people know about, but some of it will remain unknown, simply because parts of it don't get used enough for somebody to remember to include it in the list.
Other things, like XCOPY desperately need some work, and they are much easier to clone. Start small, and work up to the bigger things as you learn more about it. You start by documenting what it does, then you document what it should do, then you find somebody to write the code, then you get that code tested by a small group of testers, then you get it tested by a larger group of testers, then you release a beta, then you release a GA. Then, you start over because it doesn't work as advertized, or the requirements have changed. Simple, for those who don't have to do it.