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

[Hans Bachner]

Robert A. Brooks schrieb am 23.11.2019 um 23:17:
> On 11/23/2019 4:58 PM, Hans Bachner wrote:
>> IanD schrieb am 23.11.2019 um 09:01:
>>> Better that VSI offer a cheap upgrade path to come over to VSI 
>>> branded VMS
>>>
>>> Don't they already offer a free path to x86-64 VMS?
>>
>> To be exact, they *did* offer.
>>
>> It did not take long after HPE announced that they would not sell or 
>> renew support contracts for any version of OpenVMS, thus retratcting 
>> as the only competitor of VSI, for VSI to remove the right to upgrade 
>> to Major Versions from their (3+ year) support contracts.
>>
>> Customers who don't already have such a contract will need to buy new 
>> licenses for OpenVMS V9.x :-(
>>
>> I'm curious how many licenses for V8.4-2L1 VSI will sell if the 
>> customer needs new licenses only 12 to 18 months later to move on to 
>> V9 ... I assume that most if not all HPE V8.4 customers will stay 
>> there until V9.
> 
> It's my understanding that the VSI ***Alpha*** offering came with the free
> upgrade to X86_64.
> 
> Since I'm an engineer, not a marketer, I might have that wrong.

I'm no going to dig through the paperwork at this time of day regarding 
the x86 entitlement, but support contracts for VSI OpenVMS IA64 did 
include the right to go to V9 i they were purchased from VSI (or their 
resellers) and not from HPE.

Hans.