Ed Gould asks:
>Can I ask an innocent(?) question here.. LINUX is it documented like
>MVS or something like early 360 (YES 360) manuals ?
Linux is maintained and enhanced in a community-driven manner, with no
single entity (e.g. IBM) controlling its entire development. As a
consequence the documentation won't be IBM-style or for that matter
HP-style.
While Linux developers in the community do produce a lot of documentation,
and there's a lot more beyond that in books and on the Web, one of the
major benefits of a Linux distributor, such as Novell and Red Hat, is in
their packaging and documentation services, especially concerning
installation and configuration procedures. But, for example, while you'll
find wonderful diagnostic code numbers on every line as you observe a z/OS
IPL, the Linux kernel doesn't provide such troubleshooting niceties. You'll
have to figure out what a sometimes cryptic string means without a code
number, much less a book with a list of code numbers and troubleshooting
guidance. It's a bit more Wild West. Which is not to say it's "bad," it
just has different design origins and different community values.
Linux does tend to inherit UNIX-style in-built documentation features. The
man pages ("man" command) are notable examples.
You can download Linux from lots of places and take a look at the
documentation it includes (or doesn't include), depending on the
distribution. To pick one example at random, you can download Linux on
System z from Novell by going here:
http://www.novell.com/mainframe
and clicking on one of the download links at right. Novell recently
introduced a "starter system" package for System z, a pre-built image which
is more convenient to set up than the traditional approach. Wikipedia lists
many other Linux distributions for System z. To cite another example, Red
Hat posts their documentation here:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/
- - - - -
Timothy Sipples
IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect
Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z
Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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