[Info-vax] Thoughts on VSI Community License Program

[John H. Reinhardt]

On 8/12/2020 6:32 PM, John H. Reinhardt wrote:
> On 8/12/2020 6:01 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> I see a lot of posts about problems or potential problems.
>>
>> But I think we should look at the big picture.
>>
>> HPE killed the hobbyist program with very short notice.
>>
>> VSI announced and started the new Community License Program pretty quickly.
>>
>> Considering how many very important tasks VSI has at the moment,
>> then I consider that pretty impressive.
>>
>> So VSI has proven their good will.
>>
>> Maybe the license mix is not optimal.
>>
>> But based on the past then I would expect VSI to listen to
>> suggestions when they do an evaluation in 1 or 3 or 6 months.
>>
>> (excluding VAX licenses which seems to be a non-starter)
>>
>> Arne
> 
> 
> I hope my post today doesn't sound like whining, but I suppose it can be seen that way.  I fully expect the VSI Community License program to evolve the way HP's Hobbyist program did over the years.  My purpose was to document what was available.  I know VSI did this in somewhat of a hurry, I think they expected up to another year before needing to roll this out.  I'm hoping that the lack of compiler PAKs on the Integrity side is just an "oh, crap, we forgot those" thing since the install files are in the downloads.  Perhaps the OpenVMS-BOE includes them, I have not worked with the VSI side before. I know HP's BOE did not.
> 
> If nobody says they want Integrity licenses for Clustering and Disk Shadowing, then VSI will never know that we want it.  I assume a good percentage of "serious" hobbyist will want them.  After all, Clustering and even HBVS are two of the main pillars of what VAX/VMS - VMS - OpenVMS are all about.  Looking at the VSI SPD for OpenVMS it seems that the HAOE gets you clustering, disk shadowing and RMS Journaling.  All of these were available previously so hopefully whatever reason it was behind not including it can be reversed.
> 
> I also know that talking about it here isn't the best channel in getting back to VSI.  True many VSI people frequent here but I imagine emails to training at vmssofware.com would be very helpful as well.
> 

I got a response on the VSI Forums <https://forum.vmssoftware.com/> to my question about clustering for Integrity.  This is it:

> Hi John,
> 
> The reasoning behind this is that Integrity is the most current platform that OpenVMS is offered on at the moment. VMS Software wants to protect its intellectual property from commercial use this way, as shadowing and clustering are aimed at the enterprise-class systems since they provide more redundancy and fail safety.
> 
> Another reason behind this decision was that, although HPE provided full license PAK for Integrity at the time their hobbyist program was active, their license agreement was clearly forbidding its use on multiple machines, and although I've seen comments on comp.os.vms and other media saying that you could send them multiple requests and they provided a set of licenses for each of them, this will definitely not happen in case of VSI.
> 
> Still, we understand your arguments and have forwarded your comment to those who are responsible for the concept of this program.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Maxim Megalinskiy
> VSI Training Team

I had to go check what he said about the HP license and I was surprised to see that it's true.  It's in the PAK files that HP sent out. I suppose we never looked it over closely when HP took over the Hobbyist program.

> $!                                   LICENSE TERMS
> $!     
> $!     1.	 GRANT
> $!     
> $!     	 Upon your qualification for this license and your signature on this
> $!          form, Hewlett Packard Enterprise("HPE") will grant you the 
> $!          right to use OpenVMS on a single computer ("Licensed 
> $!          Computer").  Use of the Licensed Computer is ONLY FOR NON-COMMERCIAL
> $!          USES (e.g., home use).  As such, you may not use the Licensed Computer 
> $!          for any business purposes whatsoever, e.g., to develop applications 
> $!          for resale, to do business accounting, etc.
> $!     
> $!     	 Your license will be granted upon the issuance of the license key.
> $!          Your rights to use the software and the license key are LIMITED TO ONE 
> $!          YEAR from date of issuance of the license key.
> $!     
> $!     	 You may copy the Software into the local memory or storage device of 
> $!          the specified quantity of computers.  You may make a single archival
> $!          or back-up copy of the Software.
> $!     
> $!     	 You may NOT transfer your rights to use the Software, the Software 
> $!          itself and the accompanying documentation including this License
> $!          Agreement.
> $!     

You will note in the first paragraph it does plainly state that HP "will grant you the right to use OpenVMS on a SINGLE computer".  So I guess those of us running VMS clusters havbe been in technical violation of the agreement all this time. I've looked back as far as October 2003 (my first license from Montagar) and even those had the same clause, in fact it looks identical to the above with the exception of "Compaq" for "HPE".

I have also inquired about the lack of compiler license PAKs for Integrity and am awaiting an answer.

-- 
John H. Reinhardt