IBM

Prob SpaceX or the Bezos clone / the robotics shit

Mainframes run on Linux, they are 1000x more robust and secure, can handle millions of transactions without the insane waste of PC server utilage, can be literally almost completely dissembled (memory and processing components included) and still run, and aren't apart of the ever growing (((botnet))).
Think about it, why do (((banks))) and real serious businesses use mainframes for their ledgers?

>If IBM didn't exist and perpetuated the way things are now we would probably have handheld quantum computers by now.
If not for IBM Unka Bill would still be making compilers and utilities for S-100 minis.

>Some mainframes run on Linux,

Fixed. I doubt that Linux could handle the load of work a mainframe is expected to do.
How many mainframe images can a Linux partition support?
Oh, and they'd all need to print, too.

>Think about it, why do (((banks))) and real serious businesses use mainframes for their ledgers?
Because there are software packages that have been used for decades that are compliant with international laws that only run on mainframes. Most of these mainframes run a variant of, or a descendent of, OS/VS1 (AKA MVS). This is IBM's flagship OS.

>mainframes run on linux
not the shit IBM is selling which is z/OS

this is a large part of it. some of the largest manufacturers of equipment in the world have all of the bill of material and pricing logic in mainframes still. there are massive projects to replace these with the same in more modern devices but these are monumental undertakings, sometimes projects with budgets of 8 or nine digits (In USD).

IBM's services arm is absolutely tremendous, they are the prime consultants on a lot of IT projects

Not even close, MF is dying for small user loads but if you need one solid peice of hardware that is retardedly stable once IPL'd, has large amount of crypto (z14 has a dedicated crypto-coprocessor) or can support a few thousand LPARs (Think like hardware partitioned VMs) or integrates with tech already written or business critical you go with a MF. Hell, you can visualize up to 18000 Linux VMs on a decently provisioned z14. The main use is established technologies, but they are forward moving with Watson and other offerings. So on the same box that is running Cobol from the 60s you've got your entire web infra running through it and all sorts of other shit. Scale up over out.

That was more of a early 2000s thing, they've since realized that you can't just throw Pajeets at MF and expect quality.

Mainframes can run Linux through z/VM and other facilities. But the main selling point is that stability, on the fly hardware changes being one of the main reasons. That and they're rated for use with critical data (insurance, gov, etc) something you can't get in Linux land. There's also a fully POSIX complient service called USS for running Unix workloads.

research.ibm.com/ibm-q/

Not the whole workload, but a few small LPARs maybe. I think one of the coolest things is how z handles network connections. The network interfaces themselves have processors that do polling and caching. The only time a processor in the system is activated is once the connection is ready. That saves a few orders on network handing, shit's nuts.

Attached: asdf.png (1192x919, 107K)

I worked at IBM doing info sec auditing, I can tell you this much the company is a shell of a shell. My boss was cheap as fuck when it came to budget.
For a company that had an employee contract worth its weight in gold that social bond is very much dead.
Right now it's a mix of retirement age boomers who are still kept for legacy stuff like the mainframes and barely realize they are alive and now a mass influx of bottom tier pajeet, chang and pinoy workers with a dash of sjw.
The whole service meme is just as it sounds a meme and it's nearly a moot point because it's outsourced anyway.

The only thing that IBM is any good at is their advanced RnD for things like AI, supercomputers and electron microscopes. They gave up hardware for nothing really when it could've now been a soild made in America selling point.

my last customer in canada IBM flew in most people from elsewhere
the project manager was from North Carolina but most of the staff was from various offshore locations. they had people from pakistan and egypt assigned.

from what I've heard IBM Global services is not a super comfortable place to be right now, that's one of the reasons why I've never interviewed at IBM despite having an open invitation

>For a company that had an employee contract worth its weight in gold that social bond is very much dead.
This isn't 1965. No company is like that anymore.

IBM burned themselves to the ground with the PS/2 line and never really recovered from it. After 30 years, the consequences of that unfortunate bunch of computers still haunt them.

>Learning COBOL + IBM Extensions in 2018
>janky VSCode -> FUSE -> USS -> JCL submit from USS workflow
>processing/generating JSON with fucking COBOL.
>Tfw the front end is if React

Spotted the 12yo boomer. Most main IBM mainframes ran on VMS or its successor z/os. Yes the newer ones can run linux.

Nice troll, but the main reason you have non-Linux OSes on the mainframes is for backwards compatibility, not because Linux can't handle them.

ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/os

z/OS, Linux, z/VSE, and z/TPFL all run on the z-series mainframes. Note how in the z/VM blurb the first thing they mention is support for Linux, and the other three OSes are an afterthought.

and you pretty much have to be willing to burn piles of cash for no reason to run Linux on IBM z when you could either buy AIX hardware or better yet, commodity X86_64 with a good virtualization solution and then setup HA/failover.

they also so DB admin stuff, they suck at it having dealt with them at my job

Enterprise market
They just pulled off from the consumer market
Like what Microsoft is doing now

I hate them. The company I work for uses WebSphere for all of our tier 1 applications and its a fucking pain to deploy and configure. Also, their blockchain pitch is pure bullshit. Cognos will be killed by Amazon. Their cloud services are built on top of Amazon. They are basically just a consulting company now. There is nothing prestigious about them any more.

Are we talking the LinuxOne family or just trying to run on a z14 or what.

They suffered the fate of all companies that still try to follow a 1970s business model.

>Learning COBOL
For the complete experience, be sure to load it off an 8" IBM 3740 floppy.

They probably have some 70 year old guy who can show you how to use it as well.

>It was at least that way (not just IBM back in 90's -millennium.

>Application level compatibility (with some restrictions) for System/360 software is maintained to the present day with the System z servers.

The devil does anyone need to run 45 year old software for? Or should I not ask that?

Don't.

I want an old IBM mainframe, where can I as a consumer buy one? I saw the artical of kid doing just that. I don't have the money to power the thing 24/7 but I would like to set one up as a test bench or even just gut the inside and use the frame. But also I really want to be that faggot that ricers up a mainframe computer.

Mainframes don't really have a CPU in the tradition sense correct? Rather the CPU is modular/spread out or not?

Attached: 1459252000912.jpg (1872x2496, 398K)

Some junkyard where the government throws e-waste? I dunno.

>hardware partitioned VMs
that's what they are now.

I see some of the z9s on auction for about $200-$1k.
Even the working ones I assume are bought for scrap since you need a literal fucking crane to move the thing.

Attached: IMG_0390.jpg (1024x768, 212K)

Go find some IBM AT on Ebay instead; it does everything the mainframe does in a more manageable package and it also can run Space Quest.

>IBM AT
I have a AT and the first IBM PC.

news.vice.com/article/windows-31-is-still-alive-and-it-just-killed-a-french-airport

The comment section on that thing is so Reddit cringe it hurts.

A lot of it is just sensationalism and clickbait anyway.

It's not sensationalism in that the article says they don't have people qualified to work on the system and they can't replace it quickly.

money.cnn.com/2015/10/27/technology/voyager-nasa/index.html

>"The issue with a system that old is that people don't like to do maintenance work," explained Fiacre. "Furthermore, we are starting to lose the expertise [to deal] with that type of operating system. In Paris, we have only three specialists who can deal with DECOR-related issues," said Fiacre.

>"One of them is retiring next year, and we haven't found anyone to replace him," he added.

Cripes, they make it sound like it was stuff from the 70s. I'm only 29 and I used to use computers with Windows 3.1 on them.

That article about Voyager 2 said they would need someone who understands Fortran, Algol, that shit. I agree that Algol is pretty damn obsolete and not used anymore but Fortran is still very much alive and well.

And you're clearly young enough to think you know how to make IT systems from back then, when you probably don't.

You don't want the hardware. Just take a look at the Master The Mainframe contest if you want access to a zOS machine. Or you can find a version of the 1.10 ADCD image and run that in Hercules (z/Arch emu) locally. Last I checked there

Dude, playing Mr. Potato Head Saves Veggie Valley in the school computer lab isn't the same thing as programming air traffic control software.

>Dude
Good way to spot a retard.

Nobody's mentioned the OpenPOWER chips, which are doing pretty well and are already deployed in Google's datacenters:
forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2018/03/19/headed-into-its-fifth-year-openpower-has-momentum-into-the-power9-generation/
as well as Rackspace's, and are used in the Summit and Sierra supercomputers.

This is why we need more goons learning the mainframe shit. Cobol, JCL, TSO mode, REXX, DB2 and familiarity with z/OS. It's not the sexiest thing, but it will land you a job. The average age of a COBOL programmer these days is nearing 50+ and guys are retiring. Half of the issue is no places are training for this and unlike Linux you can't just spin up a VM and take it for a spin. You need to want this pain.

Although the other problem is that the institutional knowledge in Frank whose retiring next year needs to be transferred to someone new. This takes time and effort, how do you know that 20yo guy won't jump ship next year?

I ran into a ex-NASA/DoD engineer (sat comms/missile guidance) and he's been pulled out of retirement at least 5 times to do maintenance on these types of projects. Slam him a whole pile of cash to do so as well. Felt bad for the guy because all he wanted to do was kayak northern Ontario :/

>I ran into a ex-NASA/DoD engineer (sat comms/missile guidance) and he's been pulled out of retirement at least 5 times to do maintenance on these types of projects. Slam him a whole pile of cash to do so as well. Felt bad for the guy because all he wanted to do was kayak northern Ontario :/
Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in

>NASA engineers have to search Ebay for obsolescent parts
>meanwhile Commodorefags have come up with all kinds of cool gadgets like the 1541 Ultimate so you don't need real floppy disks anymore

Does this say something about the ineptitude of the government or what?

Fortran is still alive and developed, yes, although at least some of that is to enable continued use of the huge amount of legacy Fortran code floating around.

Cobol is shit in a brick obsolete though.

Pretty much this guy in a nutshell. Just fucking pissed, but a cool mil is a cool mil. Someones gotta make bombs for the durkas fly.

Cool thing was with the systems he worked on they had a weight alotment of 500g or 1kg for encryption gear. They didn't know what went into it, just to work around it like a black box. Near the end of the process NSA guys would come in and install their gear for protecting comms. Couldn't answer any questions, but they were needed. Fucking spooks.

Consumer PC shit like Windows 3.x is not the same thing as the highly specialized custom computers and software used on the Voyager probes.

>500g or 1kg for encryption gear. They didn't know what went into it, just to work around it like a black box
'gotta fit in the anti-reverse-engineering thermite somewhere

The environment is my point here, there are some legacy systems that are in use that have tried to be rewritten multiple times. You can't just slot out a service that has multiple automated and otherwise connected and dependant services on it. We're not talking about a page not loading, we're talking about insurance forms not being processed, people not getting paid, interbank transfers failing. Hell look at the flaming ball of shit that is ACH that we still use. Zero authentication, but required everywhere. Hell you have everything you need to clear out an account printed on a fucking cheque.

I'm not sure whose brilliant idea was it to design an ATC controller system around Windows 3.x anyway. That was barely even an operating system.

Yeh but all you learn in IT class today is "Feminism in IT 101".

Fuck school, then get your goddamn certs and fuck the feminists like the little whores they are?

>and fuck the feminists like the little whores they are
Depends on how cute they are.

I'd buy one, gut it, and retrofit it to be a really cool looking server rack.

And to think, when I was a kid my parents told me I was wasting my time and I'd never get a job learning about retro computer shit.

Getting a job maintaining IBM 370 COBOL code =/= programming BASIC on a VIC-20.

Judging by the typical feminist, not very.

I've heard all kinds of fucked up shit like them needing 8" floppy drives, green screen monitors, and stuff like that. You can't replace it or at least adapt modern parts?

It's the government. You expected intelligence?

You kind of can, you still use a terminal emulator right? It's the same thing. You're not using a real 3270 but a emulated one. Tape drives are still a thing just not usually an actual tape drive. VSAM actually does some pretty cool shit behind the scenes. But not having a HFS by default is a touch fucked. But you can have shit like versioned files by default, decent perm control through RACF and other modern nicities. They're just by a different name and operate in a alien fashion.

Like someone else said, you can replace floppy drives with Flash-based stuff like Goteks so why not?

The floppy drive part makes perfect sense. Congress buys their media and they use that media for the relevant projects, no matter how long the project lasts.

It's not just data collection. Storage and retrieval needs to remain static, otherwise NASA would have to waste money replacing systems when everything is already set up anyway.

Even so, you still need someone to program the shit and understand how it works. And that's the problem. 25 year old IT students tend to be good at writing "Punch Trump In The Face" Flash games but 1970s IBM mainframes...not so much.

Yeahyeah I know Athana still makes 8" disks for US government legacy systems. Still doesn't mean I'd take it over an HxC.

IBM is killing Ustream free accounts. The cheapest plan is $100 a month for still limited viewing hours and I don't think most users will pay. It's sad because there are a lot of neat Japanese streams still there. I wonder where they will go.

They laid off alienbob. Fuck 'em.

Half of the issue is that of training. Seriously, how the fuck did you losers get into Linux? By firing up a VM or burning some DVDs, hell if you're old enough you got a Ubuntu CD mailed out to you. That right there is what got you into this shit.

For MF, your options are pirating a crusty version of zOS and running it in a emu or signing up for the MTM contest to work with a few other goons on a underprovisioned LPAR. Those are your options, shit's just not accessible. It's also not sexy, look at JCL and tell me you want to understand what that does? Half of devs get into it by wanting to make a mobile app or godhelpusall a game. There is next to no appeal for the MF crowd.

Now if understanding a alien system sounds fun, sign up for the MTM Learning System and have at her boys.

I know some legacy coding if you consider making the letter X move across the screen in Applesoft BASIC a useful skill.

I've been working for IBM for 3 years. Ask me any questions you wish.

>Half of devs get into it by wanting to make a mobile app or godhelpusall a game. There is next to no appeal for the MF crowd.
You have to understand that all those old crusty baby boomer IT guys from the 70s got into it before Flash games existed. When you went to college back then, you learned, uh, Fortran, Cobol, and Algol because that was all there was in terms of IT education.

It's not that you _can't_ train IT students today to do this stuff, it's that nobody wants to do it, they want to get hired by Activision and shit out Cawad00dy XVIII.

Hell, I wouldn't want to do it myself. I guess they can always hire pooinloos for that shit or something.

Do you like working there

Who says NASA buys legacy disks?

You know the moon landing tapes, user? NASA taped over those. Because they only have a limited number of reels. They taped over the moon landing tapes instead of buying new tapes.

It's not even stupid, it's just how the system there works to save money. The mistake came when someone threw the moon landing tape back onto the pile of items to be recorded over, not that they chose to be efficient with their resources in general

It's actually the best job I've ever had. I think I got lucky that I joined a solid team who works on cool shit every day. My team is 100% white too. No pajeets anywhere to be found in my office. I have a solid salary, good benefits, and a decent work-life balance. Not much more I can ask for.

No but missile silos still use 8" floppies.

That's for ICBMs, and they use those original systems because they are rock solid and have all the kinks worked out.
There is no need to have an ICBM connected to something that could possibly be compromised.

What do you work on

When are you declaring the Holy Race War and purge IBM of all shitskins infesting the White Man's once-sacred company?

I build web applications

lmao if you believe that NASA taped over the moon landing by """"""""accident""""""

I assumed it had something to do with security reasons.

>steal 8" disk with nuclear launch codes on it
>now how do I stick this in my MacBook

They're probably ye olde IBM 3740 disks, which was an industry standard and government agencies for many years required them for electronic submissions.

Not to mention probably in some ultra-obscure format that can only be read by the dino machines in the silo.

Honestly I think it's more dependability than security. If the system has a 99.9% success rate, and you've had 35 years to work out every bug and fix it, what is the purpose of "upgrading"? A web UI to launch the missiles? Social media integration?

Everyone says that there are so many shitskins in this company but I honestly do not see it. Sure, there is a large group of IBMers who live in India, but there are a lot of IBMers working throughout the rest of the world too. I've been to 6-7 different IBM offices around the country and from what I've seen, most people who work here are white.

>Not to mention probably in some ultra-obscure format that can only be read by the dino machines in the silo.
Nah, see above.

I meant the actual data on it is probably going to be useless unless you know the inner workings of the silo computer's software.

What's the last ThinkPad that's almost fully IBM?

Mind firing me off an email so we can take this off Jow Forums? Got a few questions for someone inside. Just give me some generic zOS info to prove you're IBM guy, wouldn't mind giving you a call if you're free

Random throwaway email: [email protected]