Legolas Wood writes: >Zlinux : A linux which is compiled for Z Architecture, whether 31 bit or >64 bit. like Slack, Suse or centOS
No, Slackware, Novell SuSE, and CentOS are Linux distributions. All three of those distributions are available for System z. The preferred generic term for Linux running on these systems is "Linux on System z." >System Z: An specific operating system made by IBM for its architecture, >what is its differences with the Zlinux? System z refers to the whole family of modern IBM mainframes. It's a brand for this type of business server. The latest models are System z9, and there are two: System z9 Enterprise Class (System z9 EC) and System z9 Business Class (System z9 BC). You will sometimes see IBM model numbers listed. The z9 EC is 2094-xxx and the z9 BC is 2096-xxx. The "xxx" part refers to the submodel code. The submodel code can be a specific hardware configuration or processor capacity setting. For example, a 2094-S18 is a System z9 Enterprise Class which contains two processor "books." However, you can also configure a 2094-S18 to run as any of several software capacity settings, e.g. 2094-401. A 2094-401 is a System z9 EC running at the lowest capacity setting (a single general purpose processor running at the lowest speed). Software capacity settings relate to most, but not all, of the System z's five operating systems. >Current Z System version is 1.8 and Z/OS is old name of this operating >system. z/OS is the current name for one of the five IBM supported operating systems for the System z mainframes -- it's the "flagship" operating system, in fact. The other OSes are z/VM, z/VSE, z/TPF, and, as mentioned, Linux. >Z/ VM: A virtual machine like Virtual PC, that can be installed into Z >System and then we can install guest OSs ( What kind of OS can be quest, >does an ordinary linux can be quest or we will need specific linux >versions, can we install windows?) current Z/ VM version is 5 Pretty close, although as another person pointed out z/VM started many, many years ago -- before I was born -- and has enjoyed constant refinement ever since. So it is much more sophisticated than relative newcomers like Virtual PC. Any (or all) of the five operating systems can be z/VM guests, including z/VM itself. Yes, z/VM is both an operating system and a hypervisor (virtual machine host). The traditional operating system part of z/VM is known as CMS. Yes, you can run z/VM inside z/VM, many instances deep if you wish. Linux is one of the most popular guests to run inside z/VM, and, although it is not strictly required to run Linux on System z, there are many advantages to running Linux that way so most people do. >S390 : It is name of hardware, and these hardware can have a Z system >installed on it. S390, or System/390, is the old name for IBM mainframes back before they supported 64-bit memory addressing. You will still see that name from time to time. For example, if you look at the Linux source code at kernel.org you will see references to "s390" and "s390x." The s390 parts of the source code refer to 31-bit Linux, and the s390x source code tree refers to 64-bit (known as "z/Architecture"). >Is there any book which could give me overall knowledge about these OSs >and names and what they generally do? Yes, there are many places you can look. A good place to start is here: http://www.ibm.com/university/systemz Look for some videos on the right side of the page that you can watch. They contain some basic introductory information to get you started. If you want to learn more about the inside of z/OS and how it works, you can start here: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246981.html There's also a very good set of IBM publications for z/OS basic skills. Visit here: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zoslnctr/v1r7/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zconcepts.doc/zconcepts_8.html to learn about "What is a mainframe?" Then, after reading that section, click on Home to go to the top level table of contents. For more information about Linux on System z you can start here: http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/linux Click on the Library link for books, answers to frequently asked questions, etc. Enjoy, and welcome. - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
