[Info-vax] to upgrade or not to upgrade

[Ken Fairfield]

On May 20, 2:29 am, pe... at langstoeger.at (Peter 'EPLAN' LANGSTOeGER)
wrote:
> In article <ir3nr7$ta... at online.de>, hel... at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---undress to reply) writes:
>
> >For various reasons, my planned upgrade from 7.3-2 to 8.3 was delayed.  
> >Soon, I will have time for it, but am wondering if it is worth the
> >trouble.  My current patches seem OK, and I have all the patches which
> >were available up until the lockdown, both for 7.3-2 and 8.3.  Now with
> >no hobbyist patch access and, as far as I can tell, none on the horizon,
> >what do folks here recommend?  My choices are 7.3-2 or 8.3, at the patch
> >level available last October.  AFAIK there are no serious problems with
> >my current patch level.  What about 7.3-2 or 8.3 as of last October?
>
> >It might be the last hobbyist upgrade.  :-(
>
> Don't think so

Why not?  Do you have some inside information?
(You don't have to spill it here if it's a "if I told you,
I'd have to kill you" deal... :-)

> >I've still had no luck in organising some sort of hobbyist patch access,
> >neither for free nor for a (reasonable) fee.  If anyone has any
> >suggestions, feel free to contact me via email.
>
> I (still) recommend V8.4 (via V8.3 of course)
>
> btw: Latest OpenVMS Alpha V8.3 ECO is from Feb-2011
> (not really, but the VMS083A_FIBRE_SCSI V10 is still not listed)
> VMS83A_UPDATE V16 - promised for Apr-2011 - is still missing
>
> Latest V8.4 ECOs are from May-2011

Available only to those with a support contract,
and currently there's no path to a support contract
for hobbyists.

I'm with Phillip on this one.  I have media for V8.4,
but no access to ECOs.  I'll stay with V8.3 until
or unless something changes... :-(

   -Ken