Looking for early versions of MicroVMS & VWS

[Ethan Dicks]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 4:12 PM,  <arcarlini at iee.org> wrote:
> cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org wrote:
>> Speaking of fuzzy details, my recollection of the "key"
>> process was that it only mattered for DECnet, and you got an
>> install-medium-compatible "key"....
>
> The base system was licenced for some number of users, maybe 8,
> maybe 2. The "licence key" was basically a patch to LOGINOUT.EXE
> that allowed more users (8, 64, unlimited, probably other options).

Ah... that sounds familiar.  Of course, who would consider trying to
get 64 users on a 4MB MicroVAX I - that's just not gonna happen.  A
9MB MicroVAX II might be able to handle it if there wasn't a lot of
memory-intensive activity.

> The DECnet "key" was (iirc) also a patch that enabled end node or full
> routing, depending on which you had.

Sounds right, but I don't recall fiddling with that much.

> I think clustering was done the same way.

We didn't do clustering so I have no experience with that.

> I remember pulling apart the base system licence and thinking that
> it would have been pretty easy to subvert. Then again, just like
> the LMF, I think the idea was to keep the honest, honest rather
> than keeping the bad guys out.

I think that was pretty much the point.

-ethan