4 ms·

You can get a software emulator for free and run it on a PC! It's quite robust and used by IBM's own developers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(emulato

You can get a software emulator for free and run it on a PC! It's quite robust and used by IBM's own developers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(emulator) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(emulator)

racingmars 1y ago
Hercules is _not_ used by IBM's own developers. Being found with Hercules on your computer at IBM gets you in trouble. I know people who work on mainframe-related stuff inside IBM and they steer well clear of Hercules. And I've heard that IBM's computer monitoring stuff (antivirus, asset protection, etc.) looks for Hercules and flags it. But IBM _does_ have their own mainframe emulator, zPDT (z Personal Development Tool), sold to their customers for dev and testing (under the name zD&T -- z Development and Test), and to ISVs under their ISV program. That's what IBM's own developers would be using if they're doing stuff under emulation instead of LPARs on real hardware. (And IBM's emulator is significantly faster than Hercules, FWIW, but overall less feature-full and lacks all of the support Hercules has for older architectures, more device types, etc.)
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- rbanffy 1y ago
  > looks for Hercules and flags it. There was some of a legal fight between IBM and Turbo Hercules SSA, a company that tried to force IBM to license z/OS to their users. IBM has been holding a grudge ever since (probably at the advice of their legal).
ThinkBeat 1y ago
You can run the emulator but you will not get your hands on new versions of the operating system to run on it. But there are old versions that you can get your hand on.
- rbanffy 1y ago
  You might be able to get your hands on a recent z/OS, but IBM will not be pleased.