True for any computer, so not a good argument. I interned in the early 90's at a mainframe shop, and everything felt archaic even back then. Creating a file (sr

True for any computer, so not a good argument. I interned in the early 90's at a mainframe shop, and everything felt archaic even back then. Creating a file (sry 'dataset') is as complex as partioning a disk on other systems. The punch card still lurked under a lot of parts of the system 'Of course JCL does not have loop constructs, how would this ever work with a stack of cards?'. I stayed away from mainframes ever since. Sure, you can run lots of Linux VMs on a mainframe. But now you need the skills for both --very different-- systems. Some time ago, I was involved in a project to replace a mainframe and one important reason for it was that they could not find anyone willing to replace the retiring mainframe operators. Learn about Linux and you can work in fields ranging from tiny embedded devices to high performance computing. Learn about MVS and you are stuck in a shrinking niche.