[Info-vax] : Welcome to lockdown - HP limiting access to patches

[JF Mezei]

Also:

Considering that 8.4 is the first release under the new engineering
team, that this team has not had the opportunity to prove itself yet, it
is not wise for HP to cut off access to patches.

This should wait at least 1 year just in case 8.4 proves to be buggy and
requiring a number of patches.

On the other hand, the recerse argument could be made. With an unproven
engineering team, HP probably wants to force all VMS customers to get
support contracts to ensure that their problems get resolved.

The signal here is quite clear: don't upgrade unless you have support
contracts.