
SCI Runs OpenVMS on x86-64 - xeeeeeeeeeeenu
https://www.sciinc.com/remotevms/vms_techinfo/vms_news/OpenVMSOnX86-64.asp
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morning_gelato
VSI (now called VMS Software?) just uploaded a webinar talking about their
roadmap for OpenVMS, including the new hobbyist program.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yYmHGp9Z3c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yYmHGp9Z3c)

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kragen
Oh cool! What are they doing for the new hobbyist program?

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mustntmumble
I am going to attempt to transcribe what was said about the Hobbyist
Programme:

The last thing that I wanted to touch on has to do with a new community
licensing programme. I have been with VSI almost 3 years and everywhere I've
had a chance to talk to people or go to events, I am always asked about
Hobbyist Licenses. I'm pleased to let you know we are introducing a new
community license programme which will begin in the fall of 2020. As many of
you are aware, HPE allowed those on the HPE Hobbyist License programme to make
one additional request or purchase of the HP version of OpenVMS Hobbyist
licenses towards the end of last year and with that programme winding down, we
have gone ahead and decided to proceed with a similar programme called the
Community Licensing Programme. The content available will be basically for
Integrity users and for Alpha users. There will not be anything for VAX users,
no VAX licenses. There will be some requirements placed upon the user in terms
of agreeing to our end user license agreement, our EULA, and also the
stipulation that these are not to be used for commercial gain or for
commercial use and there will also be some limitations in terms of what the
users get but we believe it will be robust enough for you to do the things
that you wish to do. So again, we're delighted to announce this programme and
delighted to be working with you for all of these changes that are going on
and we're excited. We appreciate you, we appreciate the business that we
receive, and the good news is that we are continuing to grow. And also
regarding the community license we do anticipate the same for x86. So with
that I would like to now turn the time over to Mr. Clair Grant. ...

(sorry for any errors or omissions, please do not regard my poor attempt at
transcription as being accurate, I urge you to listen to this section
yourself, it starts at about 7 mins 50 seconds)

Personally I'm very sad that VAX licenses will not continue to be provided, as
I love the VAX architecture, and have great nostalgic fondness for it.

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kragen
Thank you! Verily, the VAX omission is grievous.

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vt240
They just can't do it due to licensing, without releasing their own VAX build
of OpenVMS. That's not going to happen for obviously reasons.

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skissane
I wonder, if you get from VSI an Alpha or Itanium license file for OpenVMS,
would OpenVMS for VAX accept the same license file?

People long ago cracked the license key generation for OpenVMS. (Plus, there
are various leaked license files floating around, including non-expiring
perpetual licenses.) The OpenVMS hobbyist community has always opposed doing
that – there is no reason to do that when there is a legal method to run
OpenVMS, and there was a concern it would damage relations with HPE thereby
threatening the future of the hobbyist program. But, if there stops being any
legal way to run OpenVMS on VAX, I wonder if the community attitude would
change on that topic?

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vt240
They wont because the PRODUCER value is wrong in the VSI licenses. But you are
correct, that for most uses outside of commercial museum systems, its probably
not much of an issue since there are license generators out there in the wild.

It is really unfortunate, that a community which has always been highly
adverse to software piracy, would be forced into such a situation by HPE to
maintain their hobby systems though. At this stage, VAX VMS being out of
support for so many years, and having such little commercial value even under
emulation, it just seems silly HPE does not issue a perpetual non-comerical
license for VAX systems.

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ncmncm
On Oracle Cloud. Strange choice...

But running in a VM is a very good choice. Keeping drivers up to date with
continually changing hardware is a fool's errand reserved for Linux, BSD,
Apple, and Microsoft developers.

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nn3
They're running it on VirtualBox. That's just a normal desktop VM, nothing
cloudy. It happens to be owned by Oracle (through their Sun aquisition), but
it's an open source product.

Yes I know it's a strange thought. Someone just running something on their own
machines with their own software ...

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posixplz
Disclaimer: I work at OCI — Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

> Within an hour of receiving the kit, SCI had OpenVMS V9.0 running in the
> Oracle High Performance Cloud inside an Oracle VM VirtualBox environment.

This is confusing. OCI doesn’t have a “High Performance Cloud” product. We do
have high performance compute, but that is simply latest and greatest hardware
via bare metal instances. High performance compute is a standard and long-time
part of our portfolio. Perhaps SCI is referencing one of the legacy Oracle
cloud products? (I doubt it, Oracle is sun-setting the previous generation of
IaaS and migrating all customers to OCI.)

To GP, I don’t think choosing Oracle Cloud is a strange choice anymore. 5
years ago pre-OCI, certainly. Perhaps even two years ago when OCI was still
new. But it has come a _really_ long way. From feature, performance, and cost
perspectives, it’s a compelling product.

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koenigdavidmj
There is this:

[https://www.oracle.com/cloud/solutions/hpc.html](https://www.oracle.com/cloud/solutions/hpc.html)

There’s a set of shell scripts linked in there to demo this all, but it uses
some feature sets that I haven’t heard of at all.

Disclosure: I’m also an OCI employee, but this post is my own opinion.

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mjcohen
I wrote many thousands of lines of VMS fortran. I had a lot of fun. Maybe I
can do it again.

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zoomablemind
OpenVMS is truly remarkable in its journey through time, hardware, and owning
corps.!

It's been ported onto different arch several times through its long existence.
The previous migration was off Alpha onto Itanium IA64 (Itanic as is known).
The port to x86-64 is what should've happened instead. Meanwhile, many
companies may have migrated to emulators, or off OpenVMS altogether.

Oh, well, better later ...

Congrats!

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mrlonglong
Can't wait! Loved VMS, and still love it.

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MintelIE
This is neat, what'll it cost?

