[Info-vax] Current VMS Usage Survey

[Paul Sture]

Subcommandante XDelta wrote:

> It would be good to have this all disambiguated again and confirmed, for
> the sake of strategic discourse (redux).
>
> If there are, putatively, "98,000" systems still running, that are not
> current paying customers of HP, how are they running? -As commercial
> policy did DEC, CPQ and HP sell non-terminating, immortal, licence PAKS?

Yes.  This was something which surprised me when I forsook an IBM
mainframe environment for a VMS one. I had seen the detailed list of
software we rented from IBM and realised they could probably make more
money out of that in the long term (remember when DEC was Number 2 to
IBM's Number One?).

It was just a different business model. DEC got the cash up front then
the support fees as well, and this was no different from a couple of
third party software* suppliers we had used in IBM mainframe world.

* database and transaction processing monitor, at circa GBP 20,000
apiece then yearly support at some percentage of that.

-- 
Paul Sture