Count me in for a more serious discussion. Note that some (perhaps large) proportion of potential users of such a co-op may be of the kind that need infrequent access to system programmer functionalities, only the widest possible range of compilers and subsystems for application-level explorations.
Of course there would also be those who would need / want the ability to explore authorized-program construction and use (how to set up and use PC-SS clients and servers, for example), and such exploration always has the possibility to blow up or cripple a system while learning the Right Way to do such things. Easy recovery of a "virgin" working system-level environment with your source / data disks left intact will be important for such explorations. Another "setup" issue may be what third-party tools can / should be included. E.G., Rocket ports and jzos are free to install, but to be done properly and considering the total space occupied should be installed at the system level, not in individual user file systems. Certainly some discussion is needed around the availability / use of such features. Ditto for such features as the emerging Zowe environment and RD/z or whatever that is named these days and zOSMF, etc., etc. Can / should a user be permitted to set up some reasonable number of large EAV volumes for big-data functionality exploration? Ditto for large unix file systems or z/OS based git server hubs. Peter P.S. - At least in my mail client, your email address in the message headers is the listserv web interface, AFAIK it is not possible to email you privately at that address. -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Grant Taylor Sent: Sunday, July 5, 2020 2:22 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Migrate z/OS DASD volumes from Mainframe to Hercules Environment On 7/4/20 6:27 PM, Seymour J Metz wrote: > If anybody gets upset it will be because of "just because you feel > z/OS ought to be free (as in beer"; few if any posters here have > suggested such a belief. What I have seen is posters asking for > affordable hobbyist license fees. Agreed. > I'm not the one suggesting the co-op, but at first glance the idea is > intriguing. I lobbed the idea of a co-op out there the same way that people throw things at the wall to see how things stick and what the reaction is. But it does seem like there is some interest, some of it more than casual. I'm now thinking that a poll might be in order. Please reply to this message, either publicly or privately, if you are interested in having a more serious discussion about a mainframe co-op. > I'm already paying an annuual support fee for ArcaOS, a rebranded > OS/2; if I could get z/OS and z/VM on Hercules at comparable cost then > it wouldn't break my budget. I seriously doubt that we will ever be able to legally run z/OS on Hercules. I suspect that it would have to be on an older / smaller system or z/PDT or guest VMs on someone's larger system. > The deciding factor would be the license terms; it would have to be > legal to use the platform to develop commercial software. I don't object to the idea. But my limited understanding is that such probably raises the bar more than little bit. -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
