> True. OTOH, you can take that $1000 Intel box and run Hercules on it and get > reasonable power. The gotcha is that IBM hasn't seen fit to allow the same > low-cost access to its mainframe software. (No, Peter and Phil, $20K is not > low-cost.)
But it _is_ low-cost - the PWD software is free. IBM has chosen to support the low end via a channel strategy using business partners - whatever you might be able to achieve in other ways, that is a major strategy decision that is not going to go away. This is the main reason why a new IBM system is one of the PWD Ts&Cs. > Yup. This is why I've been arguing for a hobbyst/personal-use license for > the past 2 years. Since the only tangible step during that time has been a backwards one (the deletion of the Redbook chapter) perhaps an alternative strategy should be developed? You cannot possibly hope for success unless you take the time to _UNDERSTAND_ where IBM is coming from, what is possible, and what is simply impossible. I haven't seen any effort devoted to that. Mass skill availability is one major reason why IBM is pursuing its Linux strategy - Irving goes on and on (and on) about hundreds of thousands of young graduates leaving college and bringing their Linux skills out to the market. There may be a need for bringing new skills into the zSeries arena, but I very much doubt that a hobbyist system would address that requirement at all - the demographics are completely wrong. You cannot produce a meaningful contribution to the skills pool just by handing out z/OS - the world isn't short of sysprogs, but of application creators, who need middleware and application generators to do their stuff. That means talking to Software Division as well - which is where life gets amusing. -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.com +44 7785 302 803 +49 173 6242039
