[Info-vax] A new suggestion to handle the temporary production licences problem

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2021-06-03 kl. 12:24, skrev Andrew Brehm:
> On 02/06/2021 15:56, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Perhaps the easiest distinction between commercial and non-commercial 
>>>>> use is system specs.
>>>>>
>>>>> Make OpenVMS freely available to everyone and let it use up to 4 cores 
>>>>> and up to 8 GB of RAM for free, then demand payment for more.
>>>>>
>>>>> This will allow everyone to use VMS for development and testing and 
>>>>> will make serious customers pay. Likewise, if VSI goes away or someone 
>>>>> forgets to renew support, VMS would simply collapse to using 4 cores 
>>>>> and 8 GB only, keeping production system running but very slowly...
>>>>
>>>> We have 1 core and 4 GB RAM, and the system is quite fast.
>>>> And I do not consider a system supporting production in the main
>>>> factory of a leading producer of forrest/garden equipment, as "small".
>>>>
>>>> So no, I do not beleive in that solution.
>>>
>>> I don't think there will be too many systems like that in the near 
>>> future. As cores and memory become cheaper and cheaper, systems with 1 
>>> core and 4 GB of RAM will become a faint memory.
>>
>> You select the config that is "good enough". And why wouldn't you if
>> you get it for free. Is it not that all 1 or 2 CPU Alphas suddenly
>> need a 4+ CPU/core system that is also way faster per core.
> 
> 1 or 2 CPU Alphas are probably not in scope for new OpenVMS versions.
> 

The current roadmap has Alpha "Standard Support" into 2030 (as long
as the current roadmap reaches). But it also depends on what you
mean with a "new version". An Alpha 8.4-2L3? We don't know.

Anyway, for those a 1-2 core x86 VM will probably be "enough".
Should those production systems be free?