HP/DEC/Compaq

I picked up an old AlphaStation 200 4/233 recently and decided to try and install Tru64 5.0 on it - the first time I've had my hands on either AXP hardware, or the operating system.
In goes the CD-ROM and all goes well after I quickly learn how to pass commands to the boot prom based monitor. Everything starts well, up comes a managed display with twm and an installation script written in tcl/tk (it's quite obvious when you see it). All is straight-forward and logical given it's essentially just a flavour of Unix - timezones/locales, networking, etc. Then I get to set up a user account, so I create one for me of course.
I complete installation, reboot and try to log in and it says that I can't because it says "Too many users logged in already", ahhh, sh!t, this doesn't look good - I've just rebooted and there are too many bloody users logged in already - they must have been quick.
A root login turns out to be acceptable to the system, so I suspect some tight-arsed license restriction problem is coming up - sure enough, a quick "google groups" tells me that I need a special "PAT" to type in, and that I can get a hobbyists license for US $99. I'm not so sure - the license includes media, which is alright and I think it might also include a development option - which would be pretty good if that were the case, but I can't afford to put my hands on US $99 plus shipping at the moment.
I'll be damned if I put anything else on it (not that I'm against Linux, FreeBSD or the other ported environments at all - they have their place on PCs, not on hardware that has a native OS, or at least that's my take on it).
Anyone had any experience with Tru64?

as long as i remember correctly, true64 hoppiest edition (or whatever it is called), comes with an "single user" restriction. So only root is allowed to log in until you decide to spend some money on a abandoned piece of software, which true64 and some others (irix) is.

You could also try OpenVMS, even though it's not free, either, it's pretty cool - definately something quite different.

ya**u, are you sure that the hobbyist licence only enables root login? that would be most irresponsible of HP (who now own HP/UX AFAIK). i mean, who in their right mind would run root all the time...

actually i dont know it for sure, cause my alpha times has past me by long times ago, and i never crumbled around with the tru64 hoppy crap.

compaq states that the "noncommercial Package License" of tru64 is restricted to one machine and one user .

from google.groups:

...blablabla...Die Software ist ohne Lizenz nicht zu benutzen (nur der Admin kann
sich auf den system account - aeh als root - einloggen), man
kann quasi nichts damit anfangen......blablabla

feel free to translate it to english....

yeah, basically it says just that: only user root can log in. shame really. that must be the stupidest hobby licence i've yet seen.

i'd never run daily activities as root. how can they expect someone to do so?

after all i think the initial posters problem is that he has *NO* license at all, no commercial and no hoppiest one.

Um, yeh - I haven't (yet) purchased a license for a platform that is retired, but I'd presume that paying US$ 99 would allow me an installation with more than one login (which is what is already available without any license at all).
Things would be a bit clearer if it at least asked me for the necessary key or PAT or a flexlm server or whatever at installation time - which it didn't.
Maybe OpenVMS would be a good laugh instead - I haven't used VMS since 1984, then it was on a VAX 11/780, .... wow, I'm turning into an old fart.

You could also run Windows NT on that alpha box, just be sure to have plenty barfbags around.

Just got a new Alpha today. But it seems I also have this problem, for licenses there's only "OSF-USR" installed according to the tool. I'm also still on Digital Unix 4.0 .

Looks like the graphics card isn't too hot either for a supposed CAD workstation, it's a pbxgb-a. At least I got RAID-5 .