On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:50:34 -0500, Doc Farmer wrote: >Your point is valid, but WHY would IBM want to shut out this part of the >market? One of the big things I keep hearing/reading is that there are >concerns that not enough mainframe-trained students are coming out of >colleges or trade schools and into the job market. The small-platform >mainframe would erase that shortage, because schools could actually use >low-cost processors to train students how to program/operate/secure their >commercial big brothers. ...
"could". But would it happen? Is z/OS at any price a preferred instructional platform? How relevant to mainstream computer science is teaching students to code DD statements for CKD DASD when the view of many sophisticated readers of this list is that CKD should be superseded by FBA? Twenty years ago, I got a Macintosh SE, in large part so my girlfriend could write her doctoral dissertation in music. Would I have taken an s/370 (XA?) at the time for personal use?. Not if it were free; not if it were in a package I could carry. How many of us today, given a z/OS system that weighed 5 pounds and cost $1000 would make that our only computer and OS? Wouldn't we each still need another computer, or at least a partition on the same one, for Email, Web browsing, document preparation, access to IBMLink, etc.? > ... It also keeps smaller developers from creating >innovative software for the mainframe platform. > >How does restricting the marketplace like this HELP Big Blue? Because so >far, I've not seen a convincing argument for that case, despite the fact >that it seems to be the core thrust of IBM's actions. > If IBM can't make z/OS the only OS people need, and the first choice for many, too many customers will find it expedient to seek to use the computer and OS they already need and own to host the additional applications they come to need. Is it even plausible that enterprises seeking to simplify their IT structures by reducing the number of OSes they support would consider eliminating Windows, Linux, OS X, or Solaris and moving all its applications to z/OS? -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
