Liam Proven reports via The Register: Bad news for anyone who wants to use OpenVMS in a non-production environment. Older versions are dying out and conditions are becoming more stringent. VMS Software, Inc., the company that supports the continued development of OpenVMS (or VSI to its friends if you're still around after this), has announced the latest updates to its community program. This news doesn't look very good. The Alpha and Itanium versions are no longer available; only a limited x86-64 edition is available.
OpenVMS is one of the granddaddy of the big serious OSes. VMS is a direct descendant of the OS that inspired DOS, CP/M, OS/2, and Windows, and was the native OS for the first hardware to go 32-bit, and has been around for nearly half a century. I am. For decades, its various owners have offered different types of “hobbyist programs.” This program allows you to obtain a license to install and run it for free as long as it is not used in a production environment. Ever since Compaq acquired DEC, and then HP acquired Compaq, the outlook has been undulating. HP officially discontinued it in 2013, but gave it a reprieve in 2014 and sold it instead. New owner VSI ported it to x86-64 and released its new version 9.2 in his 2022. This time last year, we covered how VSI added AMD support and launched its own enthusiast program. The latest announcement seems to have disappointed that reception: “Despite initial aspirations for active community involvement, the reality fell short of expectations. Contributing to open source software, writing Wiki articles. The level of participation in activities such as 'The provision of support in the Forum is not commensurate with the scale of the program. As a result, we are at a crossroads and are being forced to reassess and readjust our approach. .”
HPE stopped offering hobbyist licenses for the original VAX version of OpenVMS in 2020, but VSI continued to maintain OpenVMS 8 (i.e. Alpha and Itanium editions) while working on version 9 for x86-64 . VSI also offered a Student Edition that included a freeware Alpha emulator and a copy of OpenVMS 8.4 to run within it. These licenses expire in 2025 and will not be renewed. If you have a vintage DEC Alpha or HP Integrity box with an Itanic chip, you will not be able to obtain a legally licensed copy of OpenVMS or renew the license for your existing installation. Of course, you can, as long as you don't pay. The Community license edition will still exist, but will now be x86-64 only. Although OpenVMS 9 is primarily targeted at hypervisors, it also supports bare metal operation on a single model of HPE server, the ProLiant DL380 Gen10. If she had only one person to play with, well, it would be tough. Currently, a community user only gets his VM image provided as a VMWare .vmdk file. It includes an “OpenVMS system disk with OpenVMS, compilers, and development tools installed” ready for use. The license is valid for one year, after which you can obtain a new copy. This means you can't configure and maintain your own system, and you have to recreate it from scratch every year. If you have an older system, your only option is to apply to become an OpenVMS Ambassador.
