On 7/3/20 4:41 AM, R.S. wrote:
1. (Some) people like to "hack", break rules, be wilful.
I strongly suspect that a personal tiny guest VM would suffice for most
in this camp. I know it would for me.
So, "illegal" Hercules with illegal z/OS is just fancy for them.
There are some that /want/ to do the illegal thing. I doubt much can be
done for them.
But the people that want to do a SYSGEN or mess with IOCDS or replacing
DASD to learn would probably be content with a guest VM and don't
/actually/ want to be /illegal/.
Notice how hobbyists and students probably completely fall into the tiny
guest VM category. People that want to do illegal things are going to
do illegal things. Let's find a good option for hobbyists and students.
2. Free is much better even than $20 per year subscription. Yes, it is
close to lunch expense. But it is not free. It require some
registration, contract, etc. People don't like it.
I believe that this registration, contract, etc. are perfectly
acceptable for most, if not all, hobbyists and students.
Free without any obligations is much more attractive. That would
induce many young people to just "play and try" this platform. Just
for fun. Or just because it may help with some university duties. This
is the method to make mainframe more popular or at least known to
young people.
I agree that this level of freedom is better than the registration,
contract, etc. But I don't know if it's /needed/ the same way that
anything, even with said registration, contract, etc., is needed.
Where's the tiny guest VM w/ 1 MIPS more than the OS itself needs?
If I'm off base with 1 MIPS, where's the guest VM that has the same user
experience as far as performance is concerned as a Raspberry Pi does for
running Linux (et al.)? Read: Fast enough to learn on, but decidedly
WAY TOO SLOW to do anything real on.
3. Nowadays Hercules running any current IBM OS is illegal. However
those who want to use it still do it. Including IBMers. Risk? C'mon! The
real risk would be when someone provide open classes (JCL, ISPF, etc.)
on such system.
I would absolutely LOVE it to find a tiny guest VM and access to someone
like an instructor that can help guide people and help them avoid common
pitfalls. I would normally associate this with a learning institution
and professor. "Yes, you can do <thing>, but you want to not do <think>
because of <unfavorable result>. Why don't you try this <other thing>
that will produce a <more favorable result> instead."
Or some company deliver some software products with no other "legal
mainframe". However for personal use it is quite safe. Yes, illegal.
4. Do you know, Microsoft give almost all their products to students (in
Poland) for free. It doesn't matter whether you study IT sciences,
archeology or ethnology. Even young ethnologist may download and use MS
Windows Server, MS SQL, etc. etc. What about IBM and mainframe? Almost
nothing. Some (now only one) universities signed some agreement and
they are somehow allowed to use IBM standard courses on IBM machines in
Poughkeepsie. It is the same like commercial course, which I sometimes
guide as a teacher. Of course student is not alloowed to access the
resources after the course is finished. He can use PC with MS stuff, but
not TSO account.
I am thankful for the Master the Mainframe course / competition allowing
registered students to continue to access the mainframe after the
competition ends up until the point that the SYSPROGs reconfigure the
system for the next year's MtM course / competition. But, this is only
temporary, and it doesn't provide the type of access that I'd like to
have to play / learn / grow.
Students have the freedom to crash / break / rebuild things as many ways
as they can think of with the aforementioned MS products.
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
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