4 Aug
2014
4 Aug
'14
10:35 p.m.
Thanks that makes sense. At least it does if you are HP.
So, the hobbyist program will issue/renew VMS 7.3 for VAX and 8.4 for Alpha licences
Who will administer the hobbyist program? If VSI are only concerned with new versions
and the hobbyist licenses are for VMS 7.3 only 8.4 then I guess it means HP.
So unless VSI are going to issue x86_64 hobbyist licenses then they can't be much help
to the program however supportive they may be.
Rod Smallwood
----Original message----
From : johnhreinhardt at yahoo.com
Date :
04/08/2014 - 23:48 (GMTDT)
To : cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject : Re: MAJOR OpenVMS News!
On 8/4/2014 4:09 PM, David Riley wrote:
On Aug 4, 2014, at 12:13 PM, R SMALLWOOD
<rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> wrote:
In the Q&A section of the conference recording, one of the questions was
specifically about the Hobbyist program and it was said that they are
fully intending to keep that up as well as the educational program. I
would not expect VSI to let the hobbyist program go as Sue (Skonetski)
was very active in it during her last years at HP.
About the only bad news in this announcement is the fact that they only
have the license for the Integrity port and to do the x86_64 port. The
license does not cover VAX or Alpha so there will be no new VAX support
past v7.3 (not surprising) nor Alpha v8.4 (rather disappointing) and any
fixes and enhancements done in Integrity or x86_64 will not be
back-ported either by VSI nor quite probably HP. Vintage hardware will
retain the vintage software.
John H. Reinhardt
Hi all
There's something about all of this that does not feel right.
How big is this outfit? I can't see how they are going to support mission critical
software on a world wide basis.
HP are now absolved from any future new VMS promises they may have made.
Where do Microsoft fit in this.
Finally will they endorse the hobbyist VMS program?
Their lineup of key players is pretty decent:
http://www.vmssoftware.com/about_kmgr.html
Sue Skonetski has been a very vocal VMS advocate for a long time,
and it's good to see her on board. Their software engineering
and R&D directors are also pretty decent; I see significant VMS
experience as well as TOPS-20 (!), which can't be bad.
Word has it that the hobbyist program is enthusiastically being
continued, though I need to deliver that with a [citation needed],
since I don't know where that's been said. With Sue Skonetski as
head of customer advocacy, though, I wouldn't be at all surprised.
- Dave