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Obtaining the last Hobbyist PAKs from HPE |
Korendyk
Member
Posts: 9
Location: Edmonton, AB
Joined: 12.06.08 |
| Posted on September 14 2020 05:03 |
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I have been trying for the last three months to obtain (renew) the last ever Hobbyist license PAKs. Filled out the form at least three times, and sent email to the address that sent me previous PAKs, and have heard nothing! Has anyone been successful in getting the PAKs?? If so, how did you do it?
VSI's Community License is now an option, but I was hoping to keep the Hobbyist license alive awhile longer before committing to the switch to the new PAKs...
Comments and suggestions welcomed ;-)
\bill |
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RE: Obtaining the last Hobbyist PAKs from HPE |
davidrg
Member
Posts: 3
Joined: 15.03.20 |
| Posted on September 24 2020 16:50 |
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I've not heard of anyone getting any licenses out of HPE since the the first few months of the year. Possibly CoVID-19 disruption at first but now it seems they're just not issuing them anymore.
I tried contacting the OpenVMS Programs office in early August to see if anything could be done to maintain access to older OpenVMS releases and layered products (things VSI can't distribute). They were of no help though - kept referring me to VSI even though I clearly explained HPE doesn't allow VSI to issue the licenses I was after.
Possibly the OpenVMS office at HPE is closed now and there is just some guy answering the various email addresses based on a script without any actual knowledge about the product. |
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RE: Obtaining the last Hobbyist PAKs from HPE |
saq
Member
Posts: 60
Joined: 24.05.08 |
| Posted on October 01 2020 02:39 |
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Same here, though I've been trying to get it since about March. I guess there isn't any particular reason for them to continue to issue them,but it would have been nice if they had bounced it back to Montenegar again. Ah well... guess we still have NetBSD for the VAXes, though it isn't quite the same. |
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RE: Obtaining the last Hobbyist PAKs from HPE |
lenticularis
Member
Posts: 4
Location: Brno, Czech Republic
Joined: 22.08.19 |
| Posted on October 03 2020 20:54 |
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It seems that since the OpenVMS Hobbyist Program was concluded, communication stopped on the usual channels (the Customer Lab and the form). I tried to contact them myself with no success and a Redditor reported having had the same experience. You can have a look at my question at HPE Community: https://community.hpe.com/t5/operating-system-openvms/renewal-of-openvms-hobbyist-program-paks-and-access-to-the-ftp/m-p/7102827#.X3lxL6YzWV4.
I saw someone saying that they issued final PAKs lasting until the end of 2021, but one had to request them quickly, which I didn't manage to do, since the COVID-19 pandemic began during that time and I had other things to worry about, so now I'm stuck with either setting an earlier date or using a cracked license if I want to use the HPE versions of OpenVMS, both of which are illegal 
Tom |
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RE: Obtaining the last Hobbyist PAKs from HPE |
johansen
Member
Posts: 1
Location: Ottawa, ON
Joined: 05.09.20 |
| Posted on November 09 2020 06:20 |
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Is there a way to legally get a copy of the latest HPE installation ISO? Including from other former hobbyist? I had the VAX, Alpha and Integrity licenses with HPE, but mainly worked with VAX. Unfortunately, I never downloaded the Alpha PAKs from HPE and when I try to install OpenVMS 8.4 from VSI, I keep getting an error as it is meant as an update only. This does not prevent me from going through the entire process, but it would be nice to have a clean install...
Eric |
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RE: Obtaining the last Hobbyist PAKs from HPE |
malmberg
Moderator
Posts: 530
Joined: 15.04.08 |
| Posted on November 13 2020 02:18 |
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While I have not yet tried a VSI install, for Alpha, it is my understanding that there are two releases, the older one is an upgrade only, and the newer one is standalone.
One poster on comp.os.vms claimed that if you ignore the errors reported by the upgrade kit when installing it, that so far everything is working. |
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RE: Obtaining the last Hobbyist PAKs from HPE |
wademj
Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 10.06.21 |
| Posted on June 11 2021 16:12 |
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I had an HP branded VMS 8.4 variant up and running under alphavm_free on Fedora. Then I obtained a VSI Hobbyist license and that also gave me access to the install and DOCs ISO to upgrade and rebrand to V8.4-2L1. Was just like a standard AXP VMS upgrade. Easy as to be honest. |
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RE: Obtaining the last Hobbyist PAKs from HPE |
saq
Member
Posts: 60
Joined: 24.05.08 |
| Posted on July 06 2021 18:38 |
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An emulator might not be an issue, but people with real older hardware should keep in mind that the VSI OpenVMS versions have dropped support for all 21064/21164 (EV4/EV5) systems now. Looking at mine and realizing that I'm going to have to go creative or go Tru64 on my 3000/300 and EB164. |
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