Posts: 8 Location: The Frog & Hounds Joined: 07.03.16
Posted on March 14 2016 04:33
I guess it would be polite to introduce myself.
I've worked with VMS on and off since first encountering it at college: their main computer systems at the time were a herd of Vax/VMS systems. I still recall wondering what the curious-sounding "introduction to VMS" was on my first timetable! Of course from that point on I was hooked. The "college" in question was Hatfield Poly, now the University of Hertfordshire, though I still think of it as the former. It also had a couple of PDP-10s (unimaginatively named BLUE and ORANGE) though sadly I never took the opportunity to get to know them especially well.
I was Vaxless after leaving until working for DEC between 1992 and 1996: not quite by intent, they'd bought the chunk of Philips I was working for at the time. I was initially quite excited, though sadly this was the post-Olsen era when Bob Palmer was asset-stripping the company so things weren't quite the same. But before I sound too negative, there was still a great community of very talented people and some very exciting technologies.
Since then, I've acquired a VaxStation 3100/m76 (sadly it's a bit poorly now: the serial connector used for the keyboard or console doesn't work properly) which had been scrapped and a 4000/60 which I actually bought myself. I haven't used either in many years: hopefully there's still some data left on their HDDs, but even if the worst has happened, the hobbyist programme means I can start over.
Posts: 8 Location: The Frog & Hounds Joined: 07.03.16
Posted on March 24 2016 01:05
I think SimH is an awesome piece of programming, but there's nothing quite like running the actual hardware. Nothing quite like receiving a scary electricity bill for it either!
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses.
Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc.
Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG?
I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX.
Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
