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

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <qr8reo$fb1$1 at dont-email.me>, Dave Froble
<davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes: 

> As for moral considerations, when something is shared, then later taking 
> away that sharing is, in my mind, very immoral.  When a company develops 
> and makes available an OS, and urges people to use said OS to develop 
> software, then those users have a stake in the software.  What could be 
> more immoral than the vendor then saying "Ok, we got you to invest time 
> and money, and now we're jerking the rug out from under you".  

As you note, commercial licenses are valid indefinitely.  As for 
hobbyist licenses, the condition was always that they can go away at any 
time (probably the reason for the expiry date).

> Note that 
> the current customers would have a perpetual license, but, where do they 
> get new people to use or work on their software, if new people cannot 
> get access to the OS.

I don't think that people with perpetual VAX licenses are interested in 
getting hobbyists access to VMS.  If they need their own people, they 
can train them.