In May 1997 at the DECUS Symposia in Cincinnati
The OpenVMS Hobbyist program began with a simple premise:

Someone wanted to run the OpenVMS computer Operating System, not for money not for profit,
but for the simple pleasure of using one of the finest Operating systems ever developed for their own personal use.

NonVMS computer users may wonder why someone would even consider using
mainframe class operating system for their own personal use, but today there are many
similar examples of appreciation bordering on obsession.

Car Enthusiasts who loving restore classic cars, model airplane enthusiasts who build and 
race model planes, and as mass market computers enter their 4th or 5th decade we now 
have computer enthusiasts who enjoy collecting and running Servers and workstations that 
at one time may have run an entire company's accounting or engineering department, and 
now perform just for their personal use. 

This is one of the reasons that Personal Computing has become as popular as it has in the 
past two decades.  Low cost affordable computer power has made it possible for anyone 
who needs a computer's database capability, graphics tools, or communication on the Internet 
to use it. 

For those of us who watched over the last few decades in the computer business solving 
problems, building tools, and delivering solutions for people who want what computers can 
do, there arises a certain amount of affection and attachment for the tools of our trade. 

For many it was IBM's plethora of Operating Environments, others found livings with Unix 
and for others still Microsoft's Windows have been the Operating systems of choice. 

But for many of us who know computers, love computers, and appreciate the engineering that 
has gone into  Galaxy virtual partitioning, Clusters, SMP, Kernel integrated networking, a 
multi-language calling standard, integrated Run Time Library Environment, Pre-emptive 
multi-tasking real-time scheduler, built in Batch and print queues, and an English Language 
Command Line Interpreter, even in 1999 we use OpenVMS. 

With this Update or version 2 of the OpenVMS Hobbyist License, Enthusiasts can now 
build a full Xwindow / Motif workstation with an IP/V6 TCP/IP compatible network stack, 
WEB server, 64-bit Alpha Computer system for less than $500.00 (used) 

OpenVMS License included in the Hobbyist program include over 103 layered products 
including compilers, WYSIWYG word processors, and the ability to Cluster up to 96 
OpenVMS systems together. 

OpenVMS enthusiasts today can use hobbyist licenses to increase their knowledge about 
OpenVMS systems which are still used for the stock exchanges, banks, hospitals, chemical 
plants and anywhere computers must be up and not lose any data. 

But at the end of the day, when the work is done, and the Internet has been surfed and 
all the files are sorted and in their place, the disks have been put to tape and the 
printers are quiet, there's nothing like the warm and safe feeling that OpenVMS imparts 
to my computers at home. 

We hope many of you feel the same. 

May you enjoy and learn much from your OpenVMS Hobbyist license and always remember 
to use this knowledge for good, and not evil.