On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 12:33 PM, Chase, John <[email protected]> wrote: > Or not. How long has it been since MVS/XA went to the museum? Or > CICS/OS/VS? Or ?????? > > To be "above board", I doubt you'd be able to run anything as a "new > installation" on the MP3000 that you can't run on Hercules "legally". > >> 20 years from now, when today's mainframes are working in a purely >> historic context, will be like today's S/3s running unlicensed CCP - >> IBM will care more about the trailing end of a Rattus Rattus. > > Like many large bureaucracies, IBM probably has a cadre of "attic minders" > whose sole occupation is to ensure that nobody retrieves anything without > first presenting "proper credentials".
Indeed. The incentive for other vendors to release old versions to the public domain is to not have to put up with &GiantCorp, Inc. insisting that they want support, and waving enough money at them to make it tempting, but eventually deciding that it isn't worth the disruption/hassle. &GiantCorp's argument is that "our mission-critical systems won't run on the current release". With MVS (and descendants), that isn't an issue, because IBM understands upward compatibility. In addition, since IBM hardware maintenance has always been in the picture, they've made it worthwhile for companies to at least sort-of stay current, so there really isn't anyone out there who's still on OS/390 R1 (and thus on old hardware). It's all a continuum, but IBM has kept it weighted such that this just doesn't come up. As such, what's the incentive for IBM to release the versions? The only one would be to encourage Herc et al., which they aren't likely to do (and yes, I'm as much a believer in planting acorns as you are, but we know IBM isn't). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
