Hello David and the group. I must confess to having lurked for many years. maybe this is a record for lurking. In case most likely many people do not know me, I'm the guy with the microvax 3300 that actually got up in front of the DEC Listens panel in 1997 and asked for a VAX hobbyist license program so I could legally play around with the machine at home. I had no idea it would grow like this. You are all great for using VMS and being part of the community. The program will be 10 years old this year 2007. A big "Thank you" to all the good people of DEC, Compaq, and H/P, especially let us remember those who have left this world, some of whom at first made the program a reality by working together to grant what seemed to me a simple request but was in reality a convoluted maze of interlocking technical, legal, and marketing issues, and thereafter advancing the properties of the program to include -all this-.
I'm running an XP1000 now as a webserver. Uptime is measured in how long it is before it has to be opened and the dust needs blown out of it. A year last time, I think, thanks to the UPS and standby diesel generator.
As the 10th anniversary approaches, In remembrance of John Wisniewski and Terry Shannon;
A reading from the book of Opcom:
In the beginning, there was a neglected MicroVAX 3300 in a corporate closet.
And then there was the MicroVAX 3300 in a living room and and a science hobbyist's empty wallet beside it, and yea, a cyclotron in the garage.
And the VAX did boot and run, and did complain that there were no Frito Lay products to cook. Yea, and no ovens, conveyors, baggers, nor any other peripheral.
And the hobbyist did make the VAX his, and tended the VAX with loving care, for it was a Real Computer (tm).
And the hobbyist did tell the VAX of the cyclotron. And the VAX was well pleased and Albert did grin.
And a loud voice like thunder as from a great WIZard spoke unto the hobbyist, saying "Hey you have to license that thing!"
And in those seasons of DECUS, there was a "DEC Listens" session.
And the hobbyist made petition to speak before DEC, and told the story, and said unto DEC, "The machine languisheth, and no more funds have I for my hobby, for the cyclotron is unruly and taketh every penny. The PC is weak and canst not tame it. I am undone! Wilt thou not allowst me to license the VAX so that I mayst confidently run the cyclotron in mine own demesnes?"
And the people, even the ones that usually did nothing but complain, did affirm and shout as one "Yea Verily!"
And there was a VMS reception.
And in 6 months, DEC did proclaim "Let there be a VAX VMS base license"
And the people did rejoice and day and night proclaim the greatness of DEC.
And DEC saw that it was good.
And in the next season of DECUS, the hobbyist made petition to speak before DEC, and said unto DEC, "Oh mighty DEC Vice Presidents, the hobbyist is now legion and 31337 above all managers of lesser operating systems, and the number of the hobbyist is 1111101000. We thank you profusely and have sworn mighty oaths to the T's and C's, but behold, the VAXen are lonely, and seek to commune with their brethren and freely serve the vast unwashed hordes of the internet, but the free tools are often difficult or obtuse for the use of acolytes"
And DEC did consider the words of the hobbyist, and a mighty man of DEC did say, "How can we refuse?"
And there was a VMS reception.
And there was a proclamation written in a secret place.
And in a time DEC did grant networking licenses to the legion hobbyist.
And the people did rejoice and day and night proclaim the greatness of DEC.
And the internet hackers did wail and gnash their teeth.
And DEC saw that it was good.
And after some time, in another season of DECUS, a mighty man of DEC did attend the VMS hobbyist session, and the session was found favorable among the people, and also was it found favorable by the mighty man of DEC.
And after the session, the mighty man of DEC did ask of the hobbyists and the DEC Counterpart and of the DFWLUG Chair, "What is it that you desire most?"
And the hobbyists and the DEC Counterpart and the DFWLUG Chair did as one voice say "Layered Products and Alpha!"
And the mighty man of DEC did hear these words, and did consider them.
And there was a VMS reception.
And the internet hackers did wail and gnash their teeth.
And in a season, DEC did grant licenses for Layered Products and for Alpha.
And the people did rejoice and day and night proclaim the greatness of DEC. And Vernon did show his teeth.
And DEC saw that it was good.
And in some time of all of these days DEC became one with Compaq, and Compaq became one with DEC, for Compaq was without VMS, and DEC was without the common PC, and both did greatly loathe Dell and IBM.
And in some other time, did Compaq become one with H/P, and did H/P become one with Compaq, for they did both loathe IBM, Sun, and Dell. But they were still not sure about Microsoft.
And in the ninth season of DEFCON, OpenVMS AXP was taken to DEFCON, and three valiant men of VMS did covertly take VMS AXP and many diverse firearms to DEFCON. In a minivan did the Wizard, the Gunny, and the Righteous Man travel through the desert for a day and a night.
And the number of the weight of the weapons was 11001000 stone and the number of the rounds was 1001110001000.
And the chronicles of the travel are written in the book of advenutres.
And in the DEFCON, the VMS AXP was put on the CTF network.
And in the DEFCON time of the CTF contest, the abomination of hackers did quickly defile every computer on the network save the VMS AXP.
And the number of their foul abomination was 1001110001000.
And when the best Solaris admin did look away, was his machine violated with the worm that never dies.
And most cruelly was the Macintosh utterly rent asunder from within.
And the number of the hackers and also the number of the rounds for the weapons was 1001110001000.
And the hackers did not, for honest purposes, use the e-mail nor the VMS accounts, or the web pages automatically generated for them by the VMS AXP. And they did try to subvert the services.
And for two days and two nights did the hackers try the VMS AXP.
And for two days and two nights did they fail.
For 48 hours did they try and fail.
And among the foul abomination of the hackers there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth and a great hue and cry arose from their midst.
And the name of the license of the VMS AXP was Hobbyist.
And Cedric Zool did mock the abomination of the hackers in the scrolls of Matco.
And the three valiant men of VMS were also wise.
And to their faces mock the hackers, the three wise men of VMS did not, for among the abomination the wrath was very great because they knew their time was short.
And the three valiant men of VMS did drink and sleep and revel and chase tail and watch people's cellphones being thrown into the swimming pool and give MP3 CDROMs to the DEFCON pirate radio station, for VMS AXP is a mighty bastion and was as the clear eye of a great storm.
And in the end time of that season of DEFCON, did the most mighty and terrible of the hackers proclaim VMS to be unhackable.
And when the scroll of the DEFCON was read aloud, there was much rejoicing among all the people of VMS.
And the DECFON brought forth a desire for secure Telnet for VMS.
And secure Telnet was added to VMS.
And the people did rejoice in VMS and in H/P and they did revel.
And to this very day, the GOONS of DEFCON forbid VMS to be entered in the DEFCON CTF, for it embarraseth them greatly.
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!
