Hello Calvin,
you absolutely made my day!
Am 07.03.2020 um 00:13 schrieb Calvin Buckley <calvin@xxxxxxxxxx>:
the ones who acquired hardware could make great technicans someday. IME, hobbyists drive a *lot* of the effort on other platforms, despite their small size, so I think it'd be worth for IBM to support them similarily to how DEC/HP has supported VMS hobbyists.
I couldn't have described any better. Thank you, really.
That's exactly my point. I guess if hobbyists have a chance to actually know they're not alone, we'd probably be surprised about how many people are interested in the platform. And this could be enough force to convince IBM to adopt a similar licensing scheme to DEC/HP(E) for VMS hobbyists.
Still, for many hobbyists out there, an initial offering like Holger's pub400 is really great, as long as you're content to be a simple user: No administrative tasks allowed. I guess there are more "cloud" options like to have your own LPAR, but I honestly don't know about these.
For me, I prefer to have my own machine, in my own basement. So I'm responsible if something goes wrong. It's not the last time I SBMJOB'd a RSTLIB from the last Save 21 to recover a source member I f*cked up. :-)
And I think you're right that it's hard to get into the system as an AS/400 noob. I struggled myself. There *is* a lot of documentation but this lot is not exactly helpful for anyone unexperienced with basics. Add the usual system specific technobabble, users of common systems don't understand and you have the situation most fresh but interested people are in.
If you've tinkered a bit with the Hercules Emulator, you probably know that there's a readymade package of the Michigan Terminal System to explore. Someone has set up the try-mts.com website with the most impressive thing: Just four points fleshed out to get you a feeling of success almost instantly!
• Part 1 - Installation
• Part 2 - Booting the system
• Part 3 - Using MTS
• Part 4 - Shutdown and where to go next
This helped me *incredibly* to have a tiny insight about MTS. I started to set up a Mediawki to achieve a similar goal with
https://try-as400.pocnet.net. Volunteers welcome! I really want to build a central point for beginners to get an overview, learn the basics, with translation of technobabble to terms known from common systems, and with links to detailed documentation @IBM or elsewhere for topics of interest. To help fighting the confusion you mentioned.
Why e-waste, when it's actual HW with no support?
Yes, that's the point. I don't know if IBM fears to lose revenue when they start to actually allow owners of old or even ancient hardware to get it to run with matching OS releases, helper programs (Console, calculation of system passwords and the like).
:wq! PoC
PGP-Key: DDD3 4ABF 6413 38DE -
https://www.pocnet.net/poc-key.asc
midrange.com
