[HECnet] HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing

[Thomas DeBellis]

Yes, there are a number of ways to get around a license check for just 
about anything if you try long enough and find the points to stub out 
the checks.  This is probably not a great idea.  Just because you've 
stubbed out a call for local validation doesn't mean you've gotten 
everything, such as reporting (covert or not) to a central site.  At a 
minimum, you'd probably be put on the spot to pony up.

I'm not surprised if VSI wouldn't attempt to extract some amount of 
money from the older licenses.  They are currently in the middle of a 
port to X86_64 and, speaking from experience, ports between 
architectures can wind up taking an unexpected amount of time.  Once 
booting on the x86_64 platform (which they have done), they will likely 
need to expend resources addressing which device drivers to write or 
port.  Such human resources are expensive and during all these time, the 
x86_64 product isn't generating any revenue.

That can put a young company into a cash crunch.  In other words, all 
R&D and no sales = chapter 11.  Once the port is fully operational, one 
assumes that a certain amount of expenditure will need to be done to 
enter new markets, perhaps regain lost customers.  That could be tough.  
Linux is increasingly difficult to compete against, Windows (data center 
addition) shows consistent improvement and well, IBM.  I do think that 
VMS has some desirable market differentiators in the data center; 
besides Tops-10, Tops-20 and z/OS, it is one of the few operating 
systems I know of with an actual functional unified operator interface, 
a working batch system and tape management.

But either way, I wouldn't bet against it being a slog for VSI for some 
time.  With regard to the licenses themselves, I think the following 
language from the VSI website appears relevant:

    October 24, 2019 - As part of its exiting the OpenVMS market,
    Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) has sold the rights to all its
    support contract renewals to VMS Software, Inc. (VSI). Both HPE
    OpenVMS (V8.4 and /*earlier*/) and VSI OpenVMS (V8.4-1h1 and higher)
    contract renewals were sold to VSI.  When combined with news earlier
    this year that HPE had stopped selling all new VSI upgraded license
    products and new VSI support contracts, this means that HPE has
    divested the controlling rights of the OpenVMS operating system
    solely to VSI.

I think the word 'earlier' may be operative, perhaps meaning 'all 
licenses, now, in the past and forever'.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On 3/7/20 11:50 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
>    Many people have ways of generating working PAKs.  Those people,
> whomever they happen to be, should try very hard to avoid impacting
> VSI's business in any way.
>
>                -Dave
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> On 3/7/20 6:58 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>
>>
>> The one, potentially scary thing, is the question of licenses for VAX.
>> VSI didn't, as far as I can remember, formally take over the VAX side of
>> things, which could mean that VAX people might be left out in the cold
>> no matter what VSI does.
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