TID: Mystic BBS 1.12 A46   
   MSGID: 3:770/100 09a54ac9   
   REPLY: 1:18/200@fidonet.org 60def43e   
   TZUTC: 1200   
   On 02 Jul 2021 at 11:08a, Sean Dennis pondered and said...   
       
    SD>  JT> I worked with DEC Alphas for a few years, but have only encountered   
    SD>  JT> architectures older than that as a hobbyist. SIMH will emulate a VAX,   
    SD>  JT> but the problem is in acquiring the OS. HP (which bought Compaq, whic   
    SD>  JT> bought DEC) still requires a license to use VMS. Up until fairly   
    SD>  JT> recently they had a hobbyist program through which one could get a   
    SD>  JT> non-commercial hobbyist license for free, but they discontinued it.   
    SD>  JT> I'm not sure what, if anything, took its place.   
    SD>    
    SD> I know little about this myself but I have heard of something called   
    SD> OpenVMS. Would that be an option?   
      
   OpenVMS was the marketing name for VMS after the introduction   
   of the Alpha.  VAX/VMS 5.x was current when the Alpha was   
   introduced, and OpenVMS AXP V1.0 is what DEC ported to their   
   new platform and shipped initially.  Starting with VMS 6.0,   
   DEC renamed the two versions OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS AXP,   
   respectively.   
      
   OpenVMS was available under the hobbyist program for quite some   
   time, but the last VAX release was 7.3.  After Compaq acquired   
   DEC, they ported VMS to the Itanium platform; this was right   
   before the HP acquisition.  OpenVMS remained available for both   
   Alpha and Itanium up through version 8.4.   
      
   After HP enterprise announced they were dropping support for   
   VMS, a new company with former DEC and HP engineers (and I image   
   a few new folks as well) got started called VSI: they've been   
   actively working on porting VMS to x86_64 and are continuing the   
   hobbyist (or something kind of equivalent).  Unfortunately, the   
   VSI "Community License Program" doesn't cover VAX processors, so   
   there are no more hobbyist licenses for VAX versions of VMS.   
      
   --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)   
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)   
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