[Info-vax] State of the OpenVMS hobbyist program?

[Hans Bachner]

Simon Clubley schrieb am 18.11.2019 um 00:49:
> [snip]
> 
> This is more of a student turnkey system than a hobbyist kit.
> 
> The real question is what happens when the licence in the kit expires.

Well, the same thing as if a "normal" PAK expires. No more networking, 
access only through OPA0.

> Can you load a new licence into your existing version of the kit
> (hence preserving your custom configuration) or are you expected to
> customise a new system disk from scratch whenever the VSI licences expire ?

I don't know whether VSI will provide the PAKs without the whole student 
kit. If not, you can always configure the new virtual disk as a second 
disk to your expiring/expired student kit, extract the PAKs from the new 
license database and register them on your "old" system.

It's a bit cumbersome, but probably less work than re-apply your 
customizations.

On the other hand, if you don't have access to the VSI software kits, 
using the new student kit is the only way to keep up to date with 
software versions and patches...

> I asked that question here but never got an answer from VSI other than
> it was aimed as a student learning kit and not as a traditional
> experienced VMS hobbyist environment.

I also hope this will change in the future. But currently they obviously 
have more important stuff to do, like finalizing the V9.0 EAK and 
dealing with the new support situation.

Hans.