[Info-vax] VAX VMS going forward

[Terry Kennedy]

On Friday, July 17, 2020 at 7:02:36 PM UTC-4, Dave Froble wrote:
> Rather than a "rabbit full", why not a single license usable by anyone?

I was thinking that someone would create a .COM file using the same set of PAKs that were included in the most recent HP hobbyist PAK bundle (plus the few additions mentioned here that were available by request), just with no expiration date. Those would be usable by anyone. It is too bad that DEC never had an /OPTIONS=(VAX_ONLY) to prevent misuse of this set of PAKs on Alpha. There is a VAX_ALPHA option, but not all products bother checking for that, so some will run on VAX or Alpha anyway, AFAIK (I have not tried any of the PAKs from a HP VAX Hobbyist kit on an Alpha). I think IA64 compliance enforcement is better controlled as those products were ported and maintained (at least sort-of) much more recently.

> I think Terry deserves an "atta-boy" for this information.

Just pointing out one possible solution. I think it would be the most elegant. There are many known LMF hacks, including ones that will allow REGISTER operations with invalid checksums (since the register operation has to compute the correct checksum, the patch just causes it to insert the correct checksum into the database instead of rejecting the incorrect one) and a number of ways to disable run-time checking of license validity. Some old-timers may remember the "Screw LMF" T Shirt from a long-ago DECUS Symposium which had a 7-line or so patch to disable checks.

But I think that issuing "bogus" licenses for the same set of products listed in the most recent Hobbyist PAK collection shows an attempt to comply with the intentions of HP and the Librarian of Congress as to what products were available to Hobbyists, instead of an "anything goes" which would likely include 3rd-party software, some of which might still be supported (or at least sold).