[Info-vax] IS everyone waiting?

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <nug0cj$ttm$1 at dont-email.me>, David Froble
<davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes: 

> This is excellent news.  Those on Alpha have basically an unlimited (in
> time) support path.  VSI will have a recurring revenue model.  If there
> is any issues, it should be much easier to "fix" a static thing instead
> of a moving target. 

Sounds sensible.  I'm of course curious about hobbyist licenses, at 
least for the future.  And, of course, prices are interesting.  One 
could get new customers by offering a low-price license (perhaps with 
less support) for companies with annual profit of less than X.

> > We're trying to sort it out, but it's likely that for V9 (IA64 and 
> > X86_64), we'll move to a similar licensing and support mechanism.

Sounds good.

> Level the playing field with Linux.  Should be an answer for those who
> say VMS cannot compete on price. 

Support prices, perhaps.  But anyone can run linux itself for free.  VMS 
can't compete here.  With linux, everyone knows that one can run it for 
free with no support, so support companies can compete on price.  With 
VMS, this is not possible; support and licenses are bundled, at least in 
some sense.  (Well, there could be a no-support option, but that doesn't 
seem like a path VSI will take.)

> > There are no plans for a V9 Alpha release.
> 
> Nor should there be.  Get Alpha VMS to a supportable point, and leave it
> there, a bit similar to VAX VMS V7.3.  The future is x86, for now. 

Sounds sensible.