As point of comparison, merge this with prior info from Timothy
(comments after):
On 01/31/2013 08:32 AM, Don Williams wrote:
Interesting note from a list reader...
BTW David, IBM Main list membership is free. The only membership requirement
is to be interested in the list.
Don
-----Original Message-----
From: david kramf [mailto:dakr....@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 4:56 AM
To: donb...@gmail.com
Subject: mainframe "selling" points
Hi Don,
My name is David Kramf .I picked your name as one of the participants to
this conversation that on the IBM mailing list digest. Hope I am not
intruding.
I am a very experienced MF developer . I quit my job several months ago to
do more interesting stuff and trying to develop on my own. This is
impossible to do on the MF
platform because the MF is not accessible . You need to invest about 5K to
10K just to to have it (legally ) on your personal pc based, and there is
no freely, updated and convenient
system where you can buy your virtual server at a reasonable price. ( I pay
20 dollars a month for a linux VS. This is a reasonable price ). So I
migrated myself to other platforms
(OS X , LINUX , RUBY ) where you can easily get access to development
platforms and can later distribute your product.
If IBM won't make an effort to open the MF platform for the huge multitude
of developers working and developing around the world on LINUX ,
smartphones , and tablets , then the MF is
doomed.
Thank You very much for reading , and I will be much obliged if you send
this message to the mailing list ( I am not a member myself ).
David Kramf
Tel-Aviv , ISRAEL =
On 01/30/2013 11:56 PM, Timothy Sipples wrote:
A couple points (and not new ones, but I guess they need repeating):
1. You don't need a zPDT, RUTz, or zEnterprise machine to develop and test
for z/OS and its middleware. In fact, in many cases you don't need to pay
even one dollar. IBM's PartnerWorld Validation Program for z/OS is one
notable example:
https://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/stg_com_agr_zos
That's a real zEnterprise machine located in Dallas, as it happens. Free is
a rather good price!
Here's some more information:
https://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/isv_com_tsp_iic_resources_systemz_remote_offerings
...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy Sipples
Both of the alternatives Timothy mentions require a company with IBM
PartnerWorld membership. I may be misinterpreting the PartnerWorld
requirements, but my impression was that you had to "be" an software
vendor/developer to apply, not just be exploring whether you could
develop the capability for z/OS application development to become a z/OS
vendor/developer. Assuming that it would be possible for a small,
not-yet-established startup company to apply, the free Validation
Program is for a limited time (60 days), and although re-application
sounds possible, it also reads like acceptance is not guaranteed, and
that this is intended for development. The "Remote Offerings" option is
not free but based on CP and storage resource usage, with a minimal
usage level and minimum monthly charge of $550/month, which obviously
doesn't compare very favorably with the $20/month quoted cost of a Linux
VM development platform.
I think the point made by David Kramf is well taken: that if you have a
sound concept for an application and are exploring starting out on your
own into application development, the more-than-an-order-of-magnitude
increase in up-front investment required to develop for the z/OS
platform versus Linux is a serious impediment to choosing z/OS as a
platform, even if you already have a z/OS skill set. One can perhaps
make a valid argument that this guarantees that companies marketing z/OS
software must have a certain minimal size and capability for product
support that is appropriate to a platform where RAS is of such great
importance, but it also guarantees that most potential developers and
start-up software companies will choose alternative platforms.
--
Joel C. Ewing, Bentonville, AR jcew...@acm.org
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