[Info-vax] OpenVMS I64 V8.1 "Evaluation Release"?

[Paul Sture]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:55:12 -0700, Rich Jordan wrote:

> On Mar 21, 5:23 am, Paul Sture <p... at sture.ch> wrote:
>> On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:21:08 +0100, Fritz Wuehler wrote:
>> > Many desktop computers are being sold now with 8G of RAM and 4G has
>> > been standard for awhile and is now considered the absolute low end
>> > of the high performance desktop range.
>>
>> Very true.  Developers who want to run multiple virtual machines and/or
>> memory hungry apps such as Microsoft SQL Server are nowadays stuffing
>> their systems with as much RAM as they will take. 16 GB or more seems
>> to be the current target.
> 
> We recently installed a Proliant with 256GB RAM and four 10 core
> processors at a customer site for SQL server.

Yes, to amend what I said above about "16 GB or more" being the current 
target, that is for developer laptops or desktops.  Obviously not servers.
 
> MS has changed SQL Server Enterprise into a 'premium product' starting
> later this year; licensing costs and restrictions are going to be like
> full Oracle mode.  Order of magnitude more expensive than now, and
> unconditionally licensed to the full capabilities of the PHYSICAL server
> it is installed on, NOT the VM it might be running under.  So the above
> system will not be able to license SQL server for up to 20 cores and
> 128GB RAM; MS charges for the WHOLE box whether or not SQL server will
> ever use it.

Ouch!  Reading the license restrictions isn't recommended if you suffer 
from blood pressure.  They really try to tell you what you can and cannot 
do with your system(s).

> Quite a racket.  And I bet folks are just lining up to pay it.

Yes they seem to be, but folks are complaining.  Apparently due to 
exchange rate fluctuations over the last few years, many customers in 
Europe were buying MS products from the UK instead of in their own 
countries. and Microsoft's answer to that is to put UK prices up.

A side effect of that is that the MS prices here in Switzerland have 
become simply too expensive, and a price cut is expected this summer.  
But I've just checked in a local store.  The retails prices for Windows 7 
Ultimate and Professional are 499 and 479 Swiss francs respectively, but 
not three feet away from that shelf one can see a Mac Mini which includes 
OS X and Developer tools for 649 Swiss francs.

For comparison, 1 Swiss Franc = 1.09 USD today.

-- 
Paul Sture