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

[Dave Froble]

On 6/25/2019 10:51 AM, Rich Jordan wrote:
> 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.
>

Do you have customer's who use VMS?

Do you provided services to those customers to enable them to continue 
using VMS?

Do you write software that helps users continue to use VMS?

To me, any fo the above should qualify you for a "developer's license". 
Perhaps not everyone will agree with that, but, anything that could 
cause VSI to have support income, now or in the future, should be 
supported by VSI.  Unless of course they feel they don't need any help.

Have you talked to VSI about such help?

To go as bit further, perhaps such people should inform VSI periodically 
of any and all their customers, what is being done, and such.  Such 
knowledge can be rather useful.  "Partners" is the word and concept that 
I'm thinking of.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
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