Buying an IBM Mainframe

cominous wrote: post #4

Is it just for the fun or is there actually a legit use case for having a mainframe at home apart from accelerating climate change?

Fun and learning.

I doubt there’s a legit use-case for a mainframe even in business environments. All the “reliability” it gives you can be re-implemented on commodity hardware and still come out ahead compared to the costs of buying & maintaining a mainframe.

Re: Buying an IBM Mainframe

#7

Post by puzzlingcaptcha » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:37 AM UTC

cominous wrote: post #4

Is it just for the fun or is there actually a legit use case for having a mainframe at home apart from accelerating climate change?

He lists 'Datacenter setup' in his bill of materials at the end so it likely won't be kept at home.

Re: Buying an IBM Mainframe

#8

Post by _lbaq » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:39 AM UTC

cominous wrote: post #4

Is it just for the fun or is there actually a legit use case for having a mainframe at home apart from accelerating climate change?

I think its a great career niche to be fluent in everything Mainframe, they are still used in critical places and will be for the foreseeable future and they are largely overlooked as a opportunity.

So if you want to work in this niche, having your own Mainframe will greatly speed up learning the system.

It probably also looks awesome when you market yourself.

So all in all, 25k USD for kickstarting a potentially very profitable career sounds like a bargain ....

Re: Buying an IBM Mainframe

#9

Post by dx034 » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:39 AM UTC

cominous wrote: post #4

Is it just for the fun or is there actually a legit use case for having a mainframe at home apart from accelerating climate change?

I'm not even sure if there are still use cases where companies use main frames for newly developed systems. Even core banking systems can be build without using a main frame.

Re: Buying an IBM Mainframe

#10

Post by classichasclass » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:54 AM UTC

puzzlingcaptcha wrote: post #7

cominous wrote: post #4

Is it just for the fun or is there actually a legit use case for having a mainframe at home apart from accelerating climate change?

He lists 'Datacenter setup' in his bill of materials at the end so it likely won't be kept at home.

I have my own "home server room" with a POWER6, but it's just a couple U in an extended tower. I can't imagine connecting this kind of a beast to household power, let alone getting it in the door. It takes a special kind of skill to maintain big iron like this and definitely the appropriate environment to house it.