Bad news for those who want to play with OpenVMS in non-production use. Older versions disappear and the terms become much more restrictive.
WAX on, WAX off – we install OpenVMS!
The company behind the continued development of OpenVMS, VMS Software, Inc.—or VSI to its friends, if it has any left after this—has announced the latest updates to the Community program. The news doesn't look good: you can't get the Alpha and Itanium versions anymore, only a limited x86-64 edition.
OpenVMS is one of the grandfathers of major serious operating systems. A direct descendant of the operating systems that inspired DOS, CP/M, OS/2, and Windows, as well as the native operating system for the hardware that Unix first joined in 32-bit, VMS has been around for nearly half a century. For decades, its various owners offered various varieties of "hobbyist programs" under which you could get licenses to install and run it for free, as long as it wasn't in production use.
Since Compaq acquired DEC, since HP acquired Compaq, its prospects looked checkered. HP officially killed it in 2013, then in 2014 it granted a reprieve and sold it instead. New owner VSI ported it to x86-64 and released the new version 9.2 in 2022.
