24 Mar
2007
24 Mar
'07
3:31 p.m.
I have a friend who has an older AS/400 in his personal collection of
computers. (It is in the collection because the AS/400 is unique enough
to be interesting.) He doesn't know a lot about it but he did manage to
get a console, wire it correctly, and get to the OS/400 command line.
To do anything remotely interesting with the machine he needs to have a
development environment. I am figuring green screen COBOL, C and RPG
are good enough. Does anybody know how to engage IBM to find out if
license keys are available for home/hobbyist use? (Other manufacturers
like DEC did this for their 'bigger' iron.)
Mike
PS: I work for IBM and I have code in every release of the AS/400 from
V3R6 on up, and even I don't know where to go for this one ...
24 Mar
24 Mar
8:45 p.m.
At 4:31 PM -0600 3/24/07, Michael B. Brutman wrote:
I have a friend who has an older AS/400 in his personal
collection
of computers. (It is in the collection because the AS/400 is unique
enough to be interesting.) He doesn't know a lot about it but he
did manage to get a console, wire it correctly, and get to the
OS/400 command line.
To do anything remotely interesting with the machine he needs to
have a development environment. I am figuring green screen COBOL, C
and RPG are good enough. Does anybody know how to engage IBM to
find out if license keys are available for home/hobbyist use?
(Other manufacturers like DEC did this for their 'bigger' iron.)
Realistically DEC is the only one that did this. To the best of my
knowledge IBM hasn't offered a Hobbyist Program for anything. I
would love to be proven wrong, as I would actually be interested in
getting a small AS/400 at some point in the future.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
25 Mar
25 Mar
3:14 a.m.
Michael B. Brutman wrote:
I have a friend who has an older AS/400 in his personal collection of
computers. (It is in the collection because the AS/400 is unique
enough to be interesting.) He doesn't know a lot about it but he did
manage to get a console, wire it correctly, and get to the OS/400
command line.
To do anything remotely interesting with the machine he needs to have
a development environment. I am figuring green screen COBOL, C and
RPG are good enough. Does anybody know how to engage IBM to find out
if license keys are available for home/hobbyist use? (Other
manufacturers like DEC did this for their 'bigger' iron.)
I have a friend who has a system that he loads
OS/400 on, and lets it turn into a pumpkin every
couple of months, and just keeps reloading it.
I don't know what sorts of development you can
do on the system, as it is closed. I would think
that most development just consists of customizing
either IBM aps, or those you have purchased. I
have heard from him that you can run for some time
on a single terminal (unknown how long, but I recall
the couple of month time frame) and then just reload.
good enough for testing and play.
jim
9:37 a.m.
jim wrote:
I have a friend who has a system that he loads
OS/400 on, and lets it turn into a pumpkin every
couple of months, and just keeps reloading it.
I don't know what sorts of development you can
do on the system, as it is closed. I would think
that most development just consists of customizing
either IBM aps, or those you have purchased. I
have heard from him that you can run for some time
on a single terminal (unknown how long, but I recall
the couple of month time frame) and then just reload.
good enough for testing and play.
I don't understand the comment - with compilers you can do any
development you want. That's why he needs license keys. Otherwise,
signing onto AS/400 and reloading it every few months isn't very fulfilling.
The AS/400 isn't known as a hackers box, but it does do C, TCP/IP, etc.
And some releases of OS/400 (the later ones) are POSIX compliant.
It's not a closed system.
-Mike
11:46 a.m.
Michael B. Brutman wrote:
jim wrote
I don't understand the comment - with compilers you can do any
development you want. That's why he needs license keys. Otherwise,
signing onto AS/400 and reloading it every few months isn't very
fulfilling.
<snip>
-Mike
Other than OS/400, I don't know of any software that will run w/o
keys, though OS/400 will.
Sharing keys is not legal, but acquiring the box with all the software
may be doable, including keys.
I was told that acquiring one with at least OS/400 install media
would get it to the prompts. That is as far as I have gone with the
thing, since there are plenty of other platforms to build and run
software on w/o messing with keys on a proprietary platform.
I also have used the twinax on the box for some projects
related to work I have had, but only to have a screen put
up. it would not and did not matter whether it was on a
36 or an AS/400
sorry for the confusion.
Jim
3:06 p.m.
At 10:46 AM -0800 3/25/07, jim wrote:
Sharing keys is not legal, but acquiring the box with
all the software
may be doable, including keys.
Depending on your budget, it looks to be possible to buy such systems
off of eBay. IIRC, it would cost $1000-3000. Yes, I occasionally
look at AS/400's on eBay to see what is available, even though I've
not bought one. :^)
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
7:05 p.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
Depending on your budget, it looks to be possible to
buy such systems
off of eBay. IIRC, it would cost $1000-3000. Yes, I occasionally look
at AS/400's on eBay to see what is available, even though I've not
bought one. :^)
Zane
Just to keep mildly on the original topic .. my friend has the AS/400
in his possession already, but would like to get a development
environment for it. So that means finding old install media for the
compilers and license keys.
It's frustrating because I work at IBM in the home of the AS/400 where
it was designed and built, and even I don't know how to figure out how
to do this.
Mike
7:52 p.m.
On Sunday 25 March 2007 15:06, Zane H. Healy wrote:
At 10:46 AM -0800 3/25/07, jim wrote:
AS/400's are regularly available here in the Bay Area (California). Prices for
smaller systems range from $100 to $250. They are generally in excellent
condition. I've seen many with disk drives (very important for AS/400's as
they use a AS/400 specific drives). Contact me off-list if you want me to
"keep my eyes open" for one.
Regards,
Lyle
--
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
Mountain View, CA
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
Sharing keys is not legal, but acquiring the box
with all the software
may be doable, including keys.
Depending on your budget, it looks to be possible to buy such systems
off of eBay. IIRC, it would cost $1000-3000. Yes, I occasionally
look at AS/400's on eBay to see what is available, even though I've
not bought one. :^) 
9:41 p.m.
Lyle Bickley wrote:
AS/400's are regularly available here in the Bay
Area (California). Prices for
smaller systems range from $100 to $250. They are generally in excellent
condition. I've seen many with disk drives (very important for AS/400's as
they use a AS/400 specific drives). Contact me off-list if you want me to
"keep my eyes open" for one.
Common lore about the AS/400 is that for the CISC systems, IOW
anything that ran pre-V4 OS/400, are nodelocked. Keys for the OS are
tagged to the CPUID, and IBM's idea of a hobbyist license is $15,000 a shot.
If you fall into a system with the disks intact, you can run whatever
software's on it. That's about the extent of it.
The RISC systems, otoh, are licensed by right of ownership. At least
as regards the base OS, if you own the hardware you are licensed to run
OS/400.
Doc
26 Mar
26 Mar
12:02 a.m.
On Mar 25, 2007, at 9:41 PM, Doc Shipley wrote:
The RISC systems, otoh, are licensed by right of
ownership. At
least as regards the base OS, if you own the hardware you are
licensed to run OS/400.
Close, but wrong.
OS/400 V4 (and later) is licensed by hardware ownership, i.e. you own
the hardware you can transfer the existing license from the prior
owner. Supposedly IBM will sell you media in this case for $100, but
in practice if the software is beyond its support life, i.e. all V4
releases, you're out of luck.
The first RISC release was V3R7 (or maybe it was V3R6). It is not
possible to transfer the license for these versions if you get a
machine with this version installed. It is true the last CISC release
was V3R1, so no CISC machine can have its licenses transferred.
ok
bear
25 Mar
25 Mar
10:31 a.m.
On Mar 25, 2007, at 6:14 AM, jim wrote:
I don't know what sorts of development you can
do on the system, as it is closed. I would think
that most development just consists of customizing
either IBM aps, or those you have purchased.
Umm...There are compilers for a few languages and even a Java VM
for OS/400, you know. It being a "closed" system shouldn't really
impact software development at the application level if you can
actually get the machine running.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
6481
days inactive
6483
days old
10 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
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bear＠typewritten.org -
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu -
lbickley＠bickleywest.com -
mbbrutman-cctalk＠brutman.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com