IBM has answered that consistently as a "No, way." for Hercules. They have the zPDT environment if you need to run on a PC. For software development only! Or as a guest on a z/VM system in Dallas. IBM wants (and I guess needs) to be able to control z/OS usage. They are not in the business of education (other than classroom type) or supplying hobbyists (at all). That's why my techie needs are now supplied by using and working with Linux/Intel (and hopefully Linux/ARM in the future). I also am of the opinion that is also why the z is likely to eventually die. Emulating the z application environment (such as zcobol does or some other environments) so that a simple recompile results in identical result on a Windows (or hopefully Linux) platform will kill z/OS itself. Intel is cheaper and is "good enough" for most businesses. HACMP and "fall over" makes RAS almost as good. ARM is getting to be even better and driving up the food chain towards Intel's server business. ARM is less ! expensive and more power efficient. Wish I weren't so old. Nobody wants to hire a 58+ year old to do "new" things like Linux. I'd abandon IBM z to its fate, if I weren't so dependant on it. Installed z MIPS may well be increasing. But number of sites and jobs seems to be decreasing.
-- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * [email protected] * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rodrigo Monteiro > Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 2:15 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Hercules, friend or foe? > > Hi there, > > Not sure if this was already discussed, but I would like to have your > opinion on this matter. > > I recently posted the following message on zNextGen discussion forum: > http://www.share.org/Discussion/tabid/77/aff/17/aft/284/afv/to > pic/Default.aspx > > Below I reproduce it on full: > > Hello everyone! > > As a new Mainframer one of the most barriers for learning > something new is > that, in most cases, you MUST have access to a Mainframe. > > When you do have access to one of those, you surely will not have full > authority and even if you have, you will rarely have a > environment where you > can experiment without the risk of messing things up. > > One alternative is a mainframe architecture emulator, named Hercules. > > The big problem here is that all major updated mainframe > software can't be > licensed on this kind of emulator. Even if you do run into some > "alternative" ways of licensing those, it's quite impossible > to acquire some > copies. > > My point is, can Hercules be saw as an learning aid and > mainframe promotion > tool? For those who work on big ISV and IBM, what's the feeling about > Hercules? > > My opinion is that a emulated mainframe running on a notebook > can never > replace a Mainframe it self (pretty obvious, but is it really > that obvious > to every company?) > > The main use of Hercules is to advance mainframe technology > providing an > accessible way to learn something new. > > In your opinion, will it ever be possible to see an > "Academic" version of > our favorite mainframe software? > > Regards, > Rodrigo > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
