OpenVMS Community License

[John H. Reinhardt]

On 7/28/2020 11:20 AM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
> On 7/28/20 12:01 PM, Zane Healy wrote:
>> On Jul 28, 2020, at 7:31 AM, Michael Kerpan via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> This leaves those of us using VAX emulation high and dry, still. HP was
>>> unwilling to let VSE offer VAX licenses. Are there any good free/cheap
>>> Alpha emulations that are at least as functional as SIMH is for VAX stuff?
>>> That may be the way forward, at least until the x86 version ships. Do any
>>> of these newer things still run VAX binaries? There's a bunch of old games
>>> like old-school VMS Moria and BOSS (a science fiction game in the
>>> Rogue/Moria tradition) that I'd like to me able to keep playing.
>>>
>>> Mike
>>
>> Games are among the things that often don’t work on the Alpha. I’m most familiar with trying to get DND running on Alpha.  You can always try to VEST the VAX binaries (that didn’t work with DND).  I have other software that requires VAX.
>>
>> Unless my memory is failing, this is also a problem for DECnet routing, isn’t that VAX only?
That's what has always been said.  But I thought I read somewhere (maybe HECnet) that the Alpha/Integrity version could do some routing also.  I may have misunderstood.
>>
>> I just applied for licenses, I’m curious to see what software is included, and if it opens up a newer version of OpenVMS/Alpha than HP was offering.  I’m also wondering if these licenses will work with older versions of OpenVMS (required for older Alpha’s).
>
> I can answer this one.
>
> Any license issued by VSI will be for a VSI version of VMS, therefore,
> newer than anything from HPe.
>
> VSI can not issue licenses for any HPe vresion of VMS so, no, these
> licenses will not work for older versions of VMS.
>
The question that will be answered when someone gets the VSI CLP PAKs is will those PAKS work on an older version of OpenVMS?  The Hobbyist PAKs produced by Compaq and HP have always worked on current and older versions.  Is there something in the License Manager code that could limit it? The Hobbyist PAKS I have been getting for years all list DEC as the Producer even through the Compaq and HP years.  I suppose VSI could have engineered OpenVMS and/or the PAKS with VSI as the Producer which would probably limit them to working on VSI versions of OpenVMS.

> bill
>
-- 
John H. Reinhardt