[Info-vax] VSI OpenVMS Community License

[David Goodwin]

In article <utulvc$1pmvc$1 at dont-email.me>, news at cct-net.co.uk says...
> 
> Just received 2 mails from VSI
> 
> End of Alpha and I64 community licenses
> 
> Looks like a more restricted X86 - WE can download a pre-built and 
> licensed VMDK with a few LP, including compilers
> 
> Or there is an Ambassador program
> 
> Not sure what to think yet...

I think the community license/hobbyist program has officially ended - 
the x86 vmdks are something entirely different and a continuation of 
that student thing they were doing before.

Going to be interesting to see what sort of damage this does to OpenVMS. 
I suspect their "community engagement" is going to pretty much disappear 
entirely as a result of this which may put the long-term future of 
OpenVMS at risk.

Could do some significant damage to any open-source packages that aren't 
being directly maintained by VSI themselves too. And not just on Alpha 
and Itanium - I don't think I'd bother porting/maintaining stuff if its 
not going to be used outside of perhaps a few commercial users even if I 
could use the Ambassador program to do it at no cost.

And for that matter, what exactly is the purpose of the Ambassador 
program? Why should I want to "bring value to VMS Software" when VMS 
software has no interest in bringing value to the community? It sounds 
an awful lot like an unpaid job to me, especially with the requirement 
to participate in meetings and "report on your work in the ecosystem".