[Info-vax] Does the HPE hobbyist program still exist ?, was: Re: VSI OpenVMS Hobbyist Program Announced.

[Rich Jordan]

On Tuesday, June 25, 2019 at 9:34:59 AM UTC-5, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 6/25/19 2:58 AM, Tony Nicholson wrote:
> > On Tuesday, June 25, 2019 at 12:04:27 PM UTC+10, Rich Jordan wrote:
> > 
> > [snip]
> > 
> >> My first attempt was with my 6 digit DECUS number.  Second was the 4 digit number now shown by Connect.  Third was the DECUServe ID.  Last one won.  Since it is a human at the other end, maybe after doing the one he/she recognized the name and identical reason text so didn't respond to them.
> >>
> >> At least I can run my home box for another year.
> >>
> >> I hope HP does something for hobbyists when they discontinue this program so we can keep running our gear.
> > 
> > I had a private message from Hari at the OpenVMS Customer Lab.
> > He was away on a well deserved trip to New Zealand for 2 weeks
> > and hence the delay in processing requests.  He also added that
> > at the moment there are no plans for HPE to close/exit the
> > hobbyist program.
> > 
> > Tony
> > 
> 
> 
> Am I the only one that sees a Program that relies on one single
> individual for its existence as problematic?  :-)
> 
> bill

Yes, but... maybe it won't stick its head up far enough for hpe to prematurely chop it off for a while.  Unless HPe provides some kind of perpetual hobby license, my home/hobby boxes and emulator are going to be unusable in the not too distant future.  Which would suck unless finances allow me to purchase VSI licenses.  

I doubt short of a lottery win I'd ever be able to run a home cluster without hobby licenses.