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

[David Goodwin]

On Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 3:14:32 AM UTC+12, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2020-07-28 21:52:01 +0000, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply said:
> 
> > 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.
> 
> It's interesting that Linux is now being viewed as being more user 
> friendly, isn't it.
> 
> >> 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.
> 
> I have LMF scars here too, and I know how this PAK 🤮 works better than most.
> 
> A chunk of the complexity and confusion here whether with LMF or with 
> product packaging—IP being a separately-installed kit, for 
> instance—dates back to every hunk of OpenVMS being extra-cost.
> 
> VSI has dropped to two license PAKs with OpenVMS Alpha, and which is a 
> substantial improvement over the past. More than a few folks had issues 
> with those omnibus hobbyist PAK files getting corrupted, too. And the 
> VSI commercial PAK purchase and distribution mechanism is still a mess, 
> and in various dimensions. But I digress.
> 
> But by present-day standards, LMF is quite user-hostile.
> 
> A more recent approach would have a license that was a checksum string 
> only, and not the complexity of an LMF PAK.
> 
> A current approach would have you sign into your VSI account with your 
> VSI password, and your purchases and entitlements then be automatically 
> loaded onto the OpenVMS system. Or you downloaded one platform 
> provisioning file for offline use.
> 
> VSI will head in the user-accounts direction eventually, but that will 
> require building a fair chunk of infrastructure both at VSI and into 
> OpenVMS (connecting the forums access and such), and likely involves 
> work around telemetry and other adjuncts.


I had forgotten about the change to only two PAKs! That does improve things quite substantially.

As a relatively clueless hobbyist new to OpenVMS it was always a bit of a challenge figuring out what minimal set of PAKs I needed to correctly enter via the keyboard to get the machine on the network so I could copy the hobbyist license script across. Or for the VAXen I'd try copy&paste them over a serial line and occasionally run into buffer issues, etc.

A simple account login would improve things. Or just a checksum you enter like most other software these days.

Though that doesn't solve the other problem with these time-limited licenses. Someday my Alphas may well run into the same licensing brick wall as my VAXen.