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In my halcyon enthusiast-learning days I tried to approach Mainframes and the IBM world to learn anything I could about the different platforms, architectures -
by unixhero 8y ago
In my halcyon enthusiast-learning days I tried to approach Mainframes and the IBM world to learn anything I could about the different platforms, architectures - basically getting into it. IBM's arrogance kept me at an arms length, and I kind of hold a grudge towards them to this day. What in the world did they gain from taking the stance of being enthusiast-unfriendly?
For instance they refused to sell me a fast-synch monitor for my RS/6000 workstation purchased from a defunct company. And so on... Good thing that Linux steamrolled most of its Unix/AIX dominance. Like a sweet revenge served cold.
To be fair, one day a few years ago I did get access to my clients' mainframe last year. A Z-something big-iron running on of the frames on AIX which I had shell access to. It was a "whoa man, I'm in. I got access to the mainframe!"-moment. My favourite tools were installed by someone else, so it was quite enjoyable; midnight commander, zshell and bourne again shell were present :).