[Info-vax] vax vms licenses

[chris]

On 04/22/22 20:32, John Dallman wrote:
> In article<t3uplg$9o9$2 at dont-email.me>,
> clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) wrote:
>
>> I keep wondering if VSI has gone for a policy of short-term income
>> at the expense of damaging long-term income and I hope that isn't
>> the case.
>
> I suspect they need to become profitable fairly quickly, or risk their
> backers pulling the plug.
>
>> VSI appears to be relying on the remaining VMS user base being a
>> captive userbase that can't easily move away, but that only works
>> if being a captive user doesn't become too painful or too risky
>> for the user.
>
> They are not in a position to grow the user base quickly, are they?
>
> Thinking about that, it would seem to require some new kind of
> application software that works uniquely well on VMS, presumably because
> of some VMS feature that is hard to port to Linux or Windows. The current
> VMS user community doesn't seem likely to invent such a thing, nor do VSI
> staff, because they're all very experienced with the current ways of
> doing things.
>
> The most likely route for such an invention would seem to be from a
> company with younger people, who decide to learn VMS and spot a new way
> of using it. The correct kind of ISV programme could improve the odds of
> this happening, but they still aren't great.
>
> John

There's a certain amount of psychology involved as well. Young people
tend to rebel and reject any kind of restriction that stops things
happening or limits their freedom to choose. While they may not
always know what to do with unrestricted freedom, they usually know
what they don't like and would reject out of hand systems with
onerous licensing conditions, when there are dozens of alternatives
around, free, that they can do what they like with, and when they
like it. LMF is just so last century.

Chris