Re:Fun things to do with your VM/370 CE machine – Fun with b...
by VLM on Monday November 09, 2026 @12:16PM
(#50428463)
I appreciate the linked effort post although I'm more into playing with MVS
Two problems:
1) The coolest thing about old / unique / non-standard OS is the features. Yes I get it that noobs need to log in and compile hello world but what turns the experience from an hour of fun into months or years of fun is crazy stuff thats just not present in the modern world like JES2 and ISMF (Well... SMF) and CICS (Well... KICKS) and doing weird things with ISAM (like what if your OS by default had a builtin database as a primitive structure just like how unix has built in text processing?)
I think people get turned off by "well OK I can compile and run FORTRAN just like on my emulated PDP-8 or my emulated Nova so why use, in this case, VM/370?" Well I would assume there are features of VM/370 that are as cool as my favorite MVS but I'm no VM expert. THAT'S that selling point to get people into the hobby. Start out trying to get NJE working on JES2 and next thing you know you're binge watching old MOSHIX videos on youtube while eating popcorn and hearing the annoying background music in your sleep.
2) As per above the biggest problem with old iron is the coolest stuff is not entirely legal even in 2026 so instead of running "real CICS" you get the reimplementation KICKS and no ISMF you get plain old SMF which isn't quite as cool. I mean, SMF is cool, just not as cool as licensed ISMF. See also you get to play with RPF not ISPF/PDF. RPF is cool but someday I'd like to legally run ISPF at home.
Two problems:
1) The coolest thing about old / unique / non-standard OS is the features. Yes I get it that noobs need to log in and compile hello world but what turns the experience from an hour of fun into months or years of fun is crazy stuff thats just not present in the modern world like JES2 and ISMF (Well... SMF) and CICS (Well... KICKS) and doing weird things with ISAM (like what if your OS by default had a builtin database as a primitive structure just like how unix has built in text processing?)
I think people get turned off by "well OK I can compile and run FORTRAN just like on my emulated PDP-8 or my emulated Nova so why use, in this case, VM/370?" Well I would assume there are features of VM/370 that are as cool as my favorite MVS but I'm no VM expert. THAT'S that selling point to get people into the hobby. Start out trying to get NJE working on JES2 and next thing you know you're binge watching old MOSHIX videos on youtube while eating popcorn and hearing the annoying background music in your sleep.
2) As per above the biggest problem with old iron is the coolest stuff is not entirely legal even in 2026 so instead of running "real CICS" you get the reimplementation KICKS and no ISMF you get plain old SMF which isn't quite as cool. I mean, SMF is cool, just not as cool as licensed ISMF. See also you get to play with RPF not ISPF/PDF. RPF is cool but someday I'd like to legally run ISPF at home.