This is why I like the way Linux handles things. I can have two
different Linux installs, as along as I have two different
partitions or disks on which to put those installs. And then the
user data is off in /home which can be yet another single or
group of partitions on one or more disks.
By doing this, this way, if I have a problem after maint, getting
a level of Linux to start, I can reboot, and select the "old"
install and come back up.
VM doing this kind of thing is wonderful. It makes for using VM
to build a new VM, boot it as a second level machine to test
it.... Now, if I were only a VM sysprog....
Windows, I always have to make a full back up of the "user data
area" and any third party software, to do an install, because M/S
assumes they own the disk drive(s) -- well effectively from where
I sit/stand. It makes it interesting to have a dual boot machine.
First you install Windows, then you install Linux. Do it the
other way and Linux is no longer bootable. Ah, then there is the
"live" CD|DVD|thumb drive.... And one can recover that way as well.
So I hope IBM is looking more at the Linux world for how to do
installs than Microsoft's way of doing things.
Steve Thompson
On 5/30/2023 4:58 PM, Phil Smith III wrote:
FWIW (perhaps nothing), IBM solved the upgrade problem ~30 years ago for VM by
separating the operating system nucleus (kernel) from the filesystem. That is,
you can have multiple copies of the VM nucleus on various CMS (the end-user
environment) minidisks, which CP (the hypervisor) knows how to read. To
upgrade, you build a new VM nucleus on a new minidisk, then tell the standalone
loader to IPL from that. If it fails, you just swap it back and go figure out
the problem. It's super-slick. Not realistic for z/OS, I suspect, though I
don't know enough to know why. And it was done as sort of a skunkworks project
by David Boloker and Rich Corak in what was left of the Cambridge Scientific
Center, in offices above the Copley Place mall IIRC. I doubt anyone could get
away with that today; even at the time, I was surprised it was accepted into
the base.
Windows has gotten better about upgrading, although, like most of you, I rarely upgrade a machine-usually by
the time I'm forced to consider a new version, it's time for new hardware. But Windows upgrade difficulties
mostly reflect the fact that the data isn't well separated from the OS: I still have a folder on my current
machine called "Fromxxxx", where xxxx is the name of a machine four machines ago. This is itself a
Bad Thing. Microsoft has tried, but then there's all the **** under c:\users\phsiii\Documents\ that isn't MY
data, and cannot just be copied to a new machine. They should have separated "user data" and
"installed stuff data" better. (I suspect the Registry was supposed to be the end-all here, but of
course isn't.)
It's fine for IBM to push toward a standardized layout. I don't think that's a bad thing at all, in
principle-except for the existing shops who have zero time/resources/interest in "fixing"
their configuration. Could all the PARMLIB stuff be pushed into one standard layout? Probably.
Would it be easy? No, and it would make a lot of shops very nervous, I'm sure-"Yeah, Bob is
the one who set that up before his heart attack, and nobody really knows the dependencies. I'm not
touching it!" This isn't ideal, obviously, but it means that when an incremental change is
needed, it can be made and tested in isolation, vs. some sort of big-bang reorg that's high-risk.
It still sounds to me like the real problem here is that there hasn't been enough thought
put into the impact on existing customers from the changes to install/upgrade beyond
"Use z/OSMF".
P.S. "Just watch this video"-sorry, that isn't how I (or, I suspect, many of
the old-timers on here) do things. I don't have time to watch some video: I want a manual
that explains the thing, so I can flip back and forth, add Post-Its, and/or copy/print
excerpts. This is a growing trend that ignores that videos are a SLOW and inefficient way
to learn many things; I attribute their rise to the fact that most people can't write a
coherent sentence to save their lives, but they sure can talk.
...phsiii (sounding grumpy on a virtual Monday)
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