Whether IBM z/OS remains the King is unknown after some years distant from the field but it was the only primary OS choice for large systems for decades. There were various alternatives but IBM was always the Big Dawg and one of their favorite unofficial lines was 'big ain't necessarily bad.'
After a brief review of z/OS just now, it doesn't appear to have undergone any radical change although increases in scale have been substantial. For example, it will support enormous increases in memory plus huge increases in performance in I/O subsystems. That it isn't radical only means code I wrote ten years ago may still run since the fundamental remains z/OS and that's the level my code ran.
Note: it's not necessary for any personal satisfaction that the code still runs or it doesn't as the interest is the evolution of z/OS.
So long as they don't change the operating system in dramatic ways the code will probably survive. Typically IBM adds new things to the superstructure but preserves old things within it for a very, very long time. There's some principle of O.S. evolution in that since eventually old kibble will strangle the beast but assume they are good at managing that since z/OS has been running since around 2000 (approx).
In fact, that was my first lead install of an O.S. and I was new at the Bank so the Tech King didn't know I had not installed an operating system before. I had assisted as in 'riding shotgun' at the University but I had not done it. He asked me if I wanted to do it and I thought to myself, hmmm, does he really need to know. I decided he did not and the history turned out fairly well ... except for the wildly foolhardy mistake of working for a bank in the first place.
Installing z/OS 'made my bones' and it was the last productive work I did since I was doing project planning mostly after that. The manager aspect wasn't really work so much as Applied Anthropology in a live environment. All of that removes you from the tech and you get lonely for it because you want to go back to take stuff apart to see what's in it but no more of that for you, Mister Wizard. Now you need to make stuff instead of breaking it. Boohoo.
The coolest thing about z/OS is Virtual Unreality and people think they're clever today with Virtual Reality but the difference is the latter is expected to make some kind of sense even if it's in some surreal way. The unreality inside z/OS is for the serious cave explorer because it makes no sense whatsoever without a Birdwatcher's Field Guide, a Guide to the Stars, and the five-volume Encyclopedia of Astrology (i.e. it's perfect for stoners).
It's amazing how many high-end IT hotshots were blowing reefer in their side game. These were people running systems across the entire country and long before you could do that by plugging into the Internet with an easy modem.
In another fact, a friend held the entire network for the University in his head as he knew all the devices, where they were, how they connected, and all of the twisted things which make network people insane and unable to communicate with other people. He could carry all that in his head but it wasn't uncommon to see him wandering around the parking lot after work because he couldn't remember where he had parked his car. He was a really good guy but nutty as they get. Such is systems programming.
One of them had a gun at one point in my adventurous career ... but I digress (larfs). The short answer on systems programmers is they're all crazy as loons.
Perhaps you're familiar with "ADVENTUR" from Willie Crowther which was the first text-based exploration game with a computer and it attracted systems programmers because of the map necessary to understand the structure and magic of Colossal Cave. That gave us one aspect of virtual since we were walking around in an imaginary cave. When IBM comes into it, they make multiple caves in multiple mountains and all of them fill the same 'space' so enjoy finding your way around in Virtual Unreality, World Explorer. You will come to know and love the Gospel of Control Blocks. Have a ball.
For quite some time I kept a tape with all the code I ever wrote for IBM systems and there was even a listing for the core segment of my biggest program ... but that stuff is long since chucked. There's no particular nostalgia for doing it again as it was like watching something really strange but there's not much more to glean beyond that ... wow, that was really strange.
There are some nice metaphors insofar as the complexity of IBM z/OS took thousands of high brain-weight people to create. It's similar to building a Boeing 747 or NASA building a Shuttle and one blows once in a while but you learn to become very damn good at ensuring they don't. It really is true humans can build exceptional things if we're given a clear shot to do it and I did have the privilege of seeing that.
- Insert political message about priorities being all skew whiff and back to front preventing much of the exceptionalism we know we can achieve -
After a brief review of z/OS just now, it doesn't appear to have undergone any radical change although increases in scale have been substantial. For example, it will support enormous increases in memory plus huge increases in performance in I/O subsystems. That it isn't radical only means code I wrote ten years ago may still run since the fundamental remains z/OS and that's the level my code ran.
Note: it's not necessary for any personal satisfaction that the code still runs or it doesn't as the interest is the evolution of z/OS.
So long as they don't change the operating system in dramatic ways the code will probably survive. Typically IBM adds new things to the superstructure but preserves old things within it for a very, very long time. There's some principle of O.S. evolution in that since eventually old kibble will strangle the beast but assume they are good at managing that since z/OS has been running since around 2000 (approx).
In fact, that was my first lead install of an O.S. and I was new at the Bank so the Tech King didn't know I had not installed an operating system before. I had assisted as in 'riding shotgun' at the University but I had not done it. He asked me if I wanted to do it and I thought to myself, hmmm, does he really need to know. I decided he did not and the history turned out fairly well ... except for the wildly foolhardy mistake of working for a bank in the first place.
Installing z/OS 'made my bones' and it was the last productive work I did since I was doing project planning mostly after that. The manager aspect wasn't really work so much as Applied Anthropology in a live environment. All of that removes you from the tech and you get lonely for it because you want to go back to take stuff apart to see what's in it but no more of that for you, Mister Wizard. Now you need to make stuff instead of breaking it. Boohoo.
The coolest thing about z/OS is Virtual Unreality and people think they're clever today with Virtual Reality but the difference is the latter is expected to make some kind of sense even if it's in some surreal way. The unreality inside z/OS is for the serious cave explorer because it makes no sense whatsoever without a Birdwatcher's Field Guide, a Guide to the Stars, and the five-volume Encyclopedia of Astrology (i.e. it's perfect for stoners).
It's amazing how many high-end IT hotshots were blowing reefer in their side game. These were people running systems across the entire country and long before you could do that by plugging into the Internet with an easy modem.
In another fact, a friend held the entire network for the University in his head as he knew all the devices, where they were, how they connected, and all of the twisted things which make network people insane and unable to communicate with other people. He could carry all that in his head but it wasn't uncommon to see him wandering around the parking lot after work because he couldn't remember where he had parked his car. He was a really good guy but nutty as they get. Such is systems programming.
One of them had a gun at one point in my adventurous career ... but I digress (larfs). The short answer on systems programmers is they're all crazy as loons.
Perhaps you're familiar with "ADVENTUR" from Willie Crowther which was the first text-based exploration game with a computer and it attracted systems programmers because of the map necessary to understand the structure and magic of Colossal Cave. That gave us one aspect of virtual since we were walking around in an imaginary cave. When IBM comes into it, they make multiple caves in multiple mountains and all of them fill the same 'space' so enjoy finding your way around in Virtual Unreality, World Explorer. You will come to know and love the Gospel of Control Blocks. Have a ball.
For quite some time I kept a tape with all the code I ever wrote for IBM systems and there was even a listing for the core segment of my biggest program ... but that stuff is long since chucked. There's no particular nostalgia for doing it again as it was like watching something really strange but there's not much more to glean beyond that ... wow, that was really strange.
There are some nice metaphors insofar as the complexity of IBM z/OS took thousands of high brain-weight people to create. It's similar to building a Boeing 747 or NASA building a Shuttle and one blows once in a while but you learn to become very damn good at ensuring they don't. It really is true humans can build exceptional things if we're given a clear shot to do it and I did have the privilege of seeing that.
- Insert political message about priorities being all skew whiff and back to front preventing much of the exceptionalism we know we can achieve -
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