[Info-vax] WHY IS VSI REQUIRING A HYPERVISOR FOR X86 OPENVMS?

[David Wade]

On 18/12/2020 23:27, John Dallman wrote:
> In article <af16d6a4-fe00-478e-8239-a52616ccce95o at googlegroups.com>,
> superseth369 at gmail.com () wrote:
> 
>> This adds more cost. Why can't it run by itself on x86?
> 
> Device drivers. There is so much variety in x86 hardware that it's
> completely impractical for VSI to write VMS device drivers for any
> significant fraction of it. Hardware manufacturers produce Windows and
> Linux drivers for their products, but they won't start writing VMS device
> drivers unless it becomes highly successful.
> 
>> Or am I misunderstanding that you do not have to buy vmware or some
>> other VM to run it?
> 
> You don't have to /pay/ for a VM system to run it.
> 
> Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> 
>> 9.0 : VBOX and KVM
>> 9.1 : VBOX, KVM and HPE DL380
>> 9.2 : VBOX, KVM, VMware, HPE DL380 and HPE DL385
>> 9.2-x : VBOX, KVM, VMware, HPE DL580 and unspecified Del servers
>> (and I assume still HPE DL380 and HPE DL385)
>>
>> (VBOX must be VirtualBox)
> 
> VirtualBox is free (https://www.virtualbox.org/) and runs on Windows,
> Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris hosts.
> 
> KVM is part of the Linux kernel, and thus should be available on any
> decent Linux distribution, again free.
> 
> John
> 

If you need a bare metal Hypervisor even the basic vSphere ESXI is free 
but with limits...

https://www.cbtnuggets.com/blog/certifications/cloud/vmware-esxi-free-vs-paid-a-look-at-license-limitations

Dave