28 Nov
2025
28 Nov
'25
5:02 p.m.
On 11/28/2025 3:20 PM, David Goodwin via cctalk wrote:
This is correct. HPE still owns the copyright on OpenVMS (all versions except x86_64 -
I'm not sure how that is handled since only VSI wrote it). VSI has all the sources
for all versions - VAX/Alpha/Itanium from HPE. They are allowed to publish updated
versions of any platform version, but choose not to for VAX because they don't see a
viable business reason - i.e. they won't make money off of it. Even doing the minimum
to get a new VAX version would cost more in expenses that they feel they can make back
through sales.
On 29/11/2025 09:49, Doug McIntyre via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 29, 2025 at 07:26:38AM +1100, Doug Jackson via cctalk wrote:
>> And even HP is a farce of a company now - a sad sad shell compared to what
>> they were.
>>
>> Who actually owns the software? Have we considered going to them and
>> asking? It worked for CP/M - which is now unencumbered.
I heard rumors of
such an effort going on for HPE OpenVMS VAX but I don't know what the progress is or
if it's still ongoing.
> It is owned by VMS Software Inc (VSI).
(https://vmssoftware.com/)
No, VMS Software has a license from HPE, they do not own
the copyrights to OpenVMS.
It is highly unlikely that they will be willing to free old VAX versions of the VMS
software.
They apparently are doing well enough to be a viable company supporting existing VMS
installations.
They still even have Itanic & Alpha licenses available.
As well as Community Edition licenses, although those are only available on x86 now.
I'm not so sure VSI holds the copyright - I think that's still with HPE. VSI just
has the right to develop new releases and issue licenses for those alone. Last I heard they're not allowed to issue licenses
for any releases produced by DEC/Compaq/HP which is why they're not selling VAX
licenses - they'd have to produce a new VSI-branded OpenVMS VAX release in order to do
that and it likely isn't worth the effort.
Exactly.
As for the VSI Community Edition - that effectively doesn't exist now. All
they're doing is what used to be called the Student Kit - a Virtual Machine with some
preinstalled licenses and software which expires one year after it was issued. You
don't get to choose what to install, or install anything extra.
Yes and no. You can install things if you have the kits. So mostly 3rd party software.
But if you were speaking of VSI supplied products (other than Open Source), yes that is
correct.
No updates, no separate license you can apply to your
existing VM to keep it going, just start over from scratch every year.
Technically, yes. While it probably violates the CLP (Community License Program)
Agreement, there is nothing that prevents you from starting up the new CLP VM, exporting
the license PAKs from it and putting them on your currently running VM. The con to this
is that they you miss the updates that were applied since the previous year. At some
point that might not be too bad, but currently, with updates happening every month to
compilers and other layered product it's a pain.
The other thing you can do is keep the system disk as pristine as possible and add a
second virtual disk with everything that you want to keep going from year to year -
account homes, software repositories, etc. Then just moving that disk over to the new one
when needed. You lose any customizations of the system disk, but you could write DCL
programs to make those modifications so they are transferable.
--
John H. Reinhardt