[Info-vax] Anyone still around ? :-)

[jrbrady65 at gmail.com]

On Tuesday, October 8, 2019 at 10:26:28 AM UTC-7, Simon Clubley wrote:
> So where is everyone these days ? :-)

Hobbyist here, lurking and watching/learning from everyone's posts.

Actively working on programming projects with my DS10 and AS400 (on HECnet too!)

Writing lots of BASIC, C and COBOL code for an X-10 controller tool, screen management system and other fun projects with serial port device interfacing (1980s tech rocks LOL).

Keeping an eye out for news about the legacy VAX and Alpha Hobbyist Licensing when HP cuts the cord on OpenVMS support.

> Has everyone moved from VMS to Linux/Windows/etc ?

Use Windows for work and home PCs. Do not like Linux.

> There was a petition recently to ask IBM to consider making MVS/XA
> available for hobbyist use.
> 
> It seems to have been rejected by IBM and IBM appear to be discussing
> whether some kind of online access to a more modern z/OS system might
> be possible instead. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it.

That would be awesome. Taking classes to refresh mainframe skills and having access to a modern z/OS environment would be great. Although MVS 3.8J is pretty capable except for the old compilers.

Jason