Mainframes are still a big thing (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

This week we’re talking about mainframes with Cameron Seay, Adjunct Professor at East Carolina University and a member of the Governing Board of the Open Mainframe Project. If you’ve been curious about mainframes, this show will be a great guide.

Cameron explains exactly what a mainframe is and how it’s different from the cloud. We talk COBOL and the state of education and opportunities around that language. We cover the state-of-the-art in mainframe land, System Z, Linux on mainframes, and more.

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Featuring:

• Cameron Seay – LinkedIn, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Open Mainframe Project
• IBM zSystems

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Fejezetek

1. This week on The Changelog (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Sentry (00:01:16)

https://sentry.io/demo/sandbox/

3. Start the show! (00:01:56)

4. What is a Mainframe? (00:04:40)

5. What exactly is an IBM Z Mainframe? (00:08:39)

6. What hardware makes up a Mainframe? (00:12:16)

7. How is Mainframe different than HPC? (00:15:50)

8. Sponsor: Postman (00:22:58)

https://www.postman.com

9. Should devs learn COBOL? (00:24:13)

10. What's the interface to use a Mainframe? (00:27:43)

11. Will IBM always own the Mainframe? (00:31:52)

12. What flavors of Linux run on Mainframe? (00:34:19)

13. The Open Mainframe Project (00:36:15)

14. COBOL misconceptions (00:37:56)

15. Demand for COBOL devs (00:40:11)

16. How do you attract devs to this world? (00:42:46)

17. What the path to get in? (00:53:24)

18. The BIG opportunity (00:58:35)

19. Thank you Cindy Harris! (01:02:25)

20. Outro (01:03:04)