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

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2019-11-24 kl. 00:47, skrev Craig A. Berry:
> 
> On 11/23/19 4:17 PM, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> 
>> 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.
> 
> When we switched our support for OpenVMS I64 from HPE to VSI in May of
> 2017, I specifically asked whether this included upgrade rights to
> OpenVMS x64 (or whatever the marketing name is going to be).  The answer
> was yes.  I was slightly stunned (and pleased) since in the history of
> VMS, moving to a new machine, much less a new platform, has never been
> something one could do without paying a handsome extra fee.  It was part
> of what made moving support to VSI a no-brainer.
> 
> Of course these assurances may not mean much now since in May of 2017,
> the assumption was that the port would be available well within the
> three-year terms of the support contract, but that's not going to
> happen.  Even if we renew next May, I don't know if we'd be allowed to
> renew with the same upgrade rights and at comparable prices, nor do I
> really trust the end of 2020 date for the v9.2 release since that is
> already about four years later than the original estimate.

Right... Our 3 year agreement for Alpha ends in summer 2020, so I'm also
of course interested in what options are available for us. We proabably
at least want to renew out Alpha agreement, but I'm not sure that we
will ever switch to x86 at this customer...