> So, no, I think it's the same level of accessibility as mainframes, you can't work against an "old" cloud provider that you picked up for almost nothing. You

> So, no, I think it's the same level of accessibility as mainframes, you can't work against an "old" cloud provider that you picked up for almost nothing. You have to put your money where your mouth is, and experimentation has a financial cost. I don't agree at all with this. You cannot simply buy an hold mainframe. And even if you did, transport costs alone would be higher than the cost of a free(!!!) cloud account. Plus you likely wouldn't have access to the required documentation. You're basically comparing old PC hardware with cloud accessibility, which is something else entirely from mainframe computing (I can tell from first hand experience as I worked with mainframes for many years). > Only people who can help you foot the bill (university, employer) or who can clean down environments properly (tutorial labs) are going to make it even remotely more accessible, but it still wont be as accessible even then. WTH are you even talking about? You can limit the potential costs of cloud computing by sticking to the free offers (every major provider has them). I'd argue that if you can foot the bill for buying, transporting, and powering a used mainframe, you can easily afford a few bucks extra if you accidentally went over the free limit with a cloud service. The only point I agree with you on is the credit card requirement. The rest is ramblings about a completely different topic - i.e. not related to mainframes at all.