[Info-vax] The VSI Hobbyist program is Live!

[David Goodwin]

On Wednesday, July 29, 2020 at 9:52:05 AM UTC+12, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <c55e9dad-38d6-443d-a83e-0585bb7befd0o at googlegroups.com>,
> David Goodwin writes: 
> 
> > Why is registration necessary? Given I can download and install linux
> > (and even Windows!) without filling out any forms why does VSI insist on
> > it? 
> 
> Because VMS is not Linux.  If you want something which behaves like 
> Linux, use Linux.

Registration forms and license PAKs aren't really a defining behaviour of OpenVMS. They're not something that has to be there so "Because VMS is not Linux" isn't really a reason to have them - at least not for a free offering.

> > How many people are going to think about giving it a try only to be
> > put off by a registration form and having to mess around with license
> > PAKs? Seems like an unnecessary barrier to me. 
> 
> Almost everyone already has such experience.

New users coming from other operating systems probably haven't. Certainly I've never encountered anything like the license PAKs outside of OpenVMS and Tru64. Filling out forms for free downloads seems relatively uncommon these days too.

> > If getting it in as many hands as possible to grow the number of
> > OpenVMS users is the goal an ISO with the licenses pre-loaded would
> > provide a much quicker and easier experience. 
> 
> I don't think that that is the goal.
> 
> If it turns out to be roughly equivalent to the old hobbyist license we 
> should count our blessings.
> 
> Presumably Alpha, Itanium, and x86 options are available.  Does Alpha 
> have to be a VSI release of VMS for Alpha?

If it isn't the goal it probably should be. I presume VSIs goal is ultimately to grow the number of OpenVMS customers rather than just support those who haven't already migrated to another platform. This means competing with Linux. Could they really do that effectively without making OpenVMS more widely available in some form?

Keeping in mind even Windows Server struggles to compete with Linux and everyone already knows how to use Windows.

I'm not ungrateful of the hobbyist program here. We're lucky VSI rescued OpenVMS and is making it available at all - lots of other operating systems have not been so lucky. I'm just looking at it from a new user perspective. If we're going to make something harder for a new user there had better be a good reason for it.