That SUN Solaris could become IBM Solaris if the deal goes through.
 Mark T. Regan, K8MTR
CTO1 USNR-Retired (1969-1991) 



----- Original Message ----
From: Joe O'Brien <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 11:02:02 AM
Subject: Re: Old IBM Mainframe - Still Useful?

Amazingly,a consistent story. The same has happened here as we are going
from an IBM environment to a SUN Solaris and/or Windows environment to
run our ERP system(s).

Dodds, Jim wrote:
> Good luck with that. My management here too is going to throw out the 
> mainframe. We (IT) were establishing working relationships with Marist, IBM, 
> and the ERP vendor to get our new university ERP system to run under z/Linux 
> but upper management caught wind of it and made us stop. Marist I assume is 
> going on with the project to move their university ERP system (which will be 
> the same as ours) to z/Linux. So now we are planning on spending close to 
> $200,000 on Dell hardware and Microsoft server software. This doesn't include 
> the licenses for the Oracle software.
>
> Jim Dodds
> Systems Programmer
> Kentucky State University
> 400 East Main Street
> Frankfort, Ky 40601
> 502 597 6114
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Erik N 
> Johnson
> Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 9:53 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Old IBM Mainframe - Still Useful?
>
> It is very true, however, that you can run several LPARs with
> Linux/390 on them.  Also, MVS is available for free nowadays, as well
> as several other major components that run on the pre-Z
> 360-derivatives.  So although you won't be able to teach your kids VM
> you CAN show them what IBM big iron can do.  Have you approached
> anybody with the IBM academic initiatives program?  Both Marist and
> Colorado have Z systems which they will provide accounts on for
> students.  My university (Northern Illinois University) is getting
> this from Marist, as our administration have their heads on backwards.
>  Some Microsoft evangelist has convinced a bunch of our administrators
> that our ESA/390s are dinosaurs that need to be surplussed and
> replaced by a cluster of x86 boxen running peoplesoft on windows
> server.  It's complete garbage and it means they're going to tell IBM
> (who was going to give us a brand new z10 bc next year) to get
> stuffed.
>
> Does anybody know where I could point out to my administration what a
> HUGE mistake they are making?  Our curriculum has been based around
> the IBM mainframe for half a century!  I can only imagine having been
> forced to learn x86 assembler... *shudder*.  When did people forget
> that IBM > Intel?!?!
>
> Erik Johnson
>
> On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 8:16 AM, John Summerfield
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Andrew Wiley wrote:
>>
>>>> Andrew,
>>>>
>>>> Unless you already have a release of VM on this hardware, you can't get
>>>> a VM that will run on this hardware anymore.  So you are pretty much out
>>>> of luck.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> IBM does have an academic initiative which provides incentives for
>>>> higher education on System z:
>>>>
>>> Well, this is a high school computer science course, so we don't have
>>> much budget and, quite frankly, we aren't a priority in... anything.
>>>
>>> However, the machine I'm investigating is being offered by a local
>>> business that's decommissioning it, and I can ask if they plan to
>>> include VM.
>>> Assuming they do, could the machine be useful? It wouldn't be used
>>> under high load; it would be hosting student projects.
>>>
>> It's 31-bit, so recent SLES and RHEL don't run on it because those are
>> 64-bit. Debian probably does, and Slack might.
>>
>> This might be a time when, depending on just what you want, a nice HP
>> DC5850[1] (desktop PC) might win out. They're 64-bit (we have AMD
>> processors in ours), they support 8 Gbytes of RAM, run the latest Fedora
>> and openSUSE, and you can use virtualisation.
>>
>> It's not a mainframe by any means, but finding someone who knows the
>> software is pretty simple (no VM gurus needed), and it's a setup the
>> kids can replicate at home if they wish (and can afford a newish pc).
>>
>> If you particularly want to run Linux/390, that's possible too. Just
>> install Hercules - it's probably in the software repo.
>>
>> 1 I mention this just because I have personal knowledge of them.
>> Probably, other vendors have something equivalent. One of the things I
>> like about these is the diagnostics DVD. It boots Linux, so I figured
>> the chances of running recent Linux is probably feasible. It is, unlike
>> the DC7700 when new.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Cheers
>> John
>>
>> -- spambait
>> [email protected]  [email protected]
>> -- Advice
>> http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php
>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
>>
>> You cannot reply off-list:-)
>>
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>>
>
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