[Info-vax] Regarding VMS on a VAX. Just curious...

[David Goodwin]

On Thursday, August 13, 2020 at 11:40:22 AM UTC+12, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2020-08-12 17:16:43 +0000, g 駻ard Calliet said:
> 
> > That's your style. Encyclopedic.
> > ...
> > So : how can we do VAX/VMS again? Concrete willings demanded.
> 
> OpenVMS x86-64 is the future, and is build on the VAX past, as well as 
> on the present of Alpha and Itanium.
> 
> 
> 
> I'd much rather see VSI focusing on OpenVMS x86-64 and in hauling the 
> 64-bit environment and tooling forward, that work even to the relative 
> detriment of OpenVMS I64 and OpenVMS Alpha work, too. And would suggest 
> the same focus for app developers, too.
> 
> I liked VAX. It was a good product for its time. But OpenVMS VAX is 
> dead. The last new release was very nearly twenty years ago, and the 
> VAX hardware designs and limits pre-millennial.
> 
> For the remaining OpenVMS VAX commercial sites around, nothing here has 
> changed. For hobbyists preferring VAX, yes. There is a transition ahead 
> through 2021, for those that received the final HPE hobbyist PAKs.
> 
> But if you'd like to see the future of VAX rekindled, by all means do 
> go find enough folks with enough money to invest in restarting OpenVMS 
> VAX. Have at. Maybe join VSI?

My interest in VAX at least is purely of a historical nature. I don't see any reason for new releases or new features, just making the existing stuff accessible long into the future. I don't want it to go the same way as Tru64, Ultrix and the various PDP-11 operating systems and layered products - something only those with existing commercial licenses can legally experience. A group of companies and individuals that will steadily shrink over time due to the non-transferable nature of the licenses.

Additionally, IIRC you need a license to even hold a copy of the installation media. At the end of next year I should be deleting all of my copies and destroying all of my installation CDs, etc. If OpenVMS VAX and its layered products survive long enough to enter the public domain it will probably be due to people illegally retaining copies of it without a license.