[Info-vax] Licenses on VAX/VMS 4.0/4.1 source code listing scans

[David Goodwin]

On Tuesday, December 14, 2021 at 8:37:43 AM UTC+13, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2021-12-10, Arne Vajhøj <ar... at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> > On 12/10/2021 8:11 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote: 
> >> On 12/10/21 8:05 PM, Dave Froble wrote: 
> >>> So, in your opinion, should customers continue to stick with VMS? 
> >> 
> >> Not my call to make.  I no longer have a dog in the fight. 
> >> If the p[people using VMS feel comfortable staying there that's fine. 
> >> Obviously, many already have not.  I think the current owners are a 
> >> better bet than the last. At least the current owners actually want 
> >> to see it succeed. But only the current users can make the decision 
> >> of whether or not to stay.  And assume all the risks that entails. 
> > 
> > The risk seems pretty low to me. 
> > 
> > The x86-64 port is almost complete that means new and cheap 
> > hardware available for many years to come. 
> > 
> 
> It's not the hardware that's the problem in the minds of many people. 
> 
> It's the fact that VMS is the road less travelled these days and it 
> comes with restrictions (time-limited production licences) that many 
> find unacceptable and which is not a problem in what these days are 
> more mainstream operating systems. 
> 
> IOW, when asking people to choose VMS, you are asking them to go 
> down the road less travelled _and_ you are asking them to choose 
> a much more restrictive licence that they would not have to do if 
> they stayed with a mainstream operating system. 
> 
> Now imagine how that looks in the eyes of a upper manager that has 
> no real emotional bond to VMS.

OpenVMS being obscure with a restrictive license isn't even the biggest
problem really.

Why pay for expensive fixed term licenses to an obscure proprietary
operating system you'll have difficulty supporting when most of the 
software you're wanting to run was designed for Linux?

Unless it gets open-sourced I don't think its realistic for VSI to increase
adoption much beyond companies currently running older HPE releases.

And if the total number of OpenVMS users is only declining those fixed
term licenses are going to be a real problem some day.