When I retired from my full-time job, I thought that it would be wrong to just let 40+ years of software design and development experience go to waste. I still had some interesting ideas for possible z/OS® and z/VM® software products, if I could develop them from home as time permitted.
During my employment with Lockheed Martin, I had the pleasure of attending many ISV Technical Disclosure Meetings (TDMs) to learn about future releases of the operating systems, and had used an Application Developers Controlled Distributions (ADCD) in a special testing environment.
So I believed if I could be approved to get (and pay for) an ADCD, I could run it under the Hercules emulator to attempt my development. The ADCD would cost me about $700 (at that time – $900 now), but I thought I could afford that as an individual developer.
Then came the bad news! IBM, quite justifiably, was tired of their software being used in an unlicensed manner, and was determined to stop that. I totally agree! But rather than use any of many license key solutions, IBM decided to bind usage of an ADCD to a hardware/software combination that they totally controlled. Enter the IBM System z® Personal Development Tool (zPDT®), a PC Linux application. When zPDT® is installed (on Linux), normal System z operating systems (such as IBM z/OS®) can be run on it.
Interestingly enough, even a large software vendor that has an actual zSeries® machine must use a zPDT® in order to utilize ADCD software. This seems a bit ridiculous, and frankly appears as simply piling on cost to using an ADCD! But I guess those vendors simply write it off as a cost of doing business with IBM.
Anyway, all this put to rest the idea of using Hercules to run ADCD-supplied software. So now what? Since I have a server and am competent with Linux, let’s take a look at what zPDT® would cost:
- A USB Hardware Key(zPDTA) – a $299 one-time cost.
- For a 1-engine system – a $3,750.00 recurring annual license charge.
- For a 2-engine system – a $7,500.00 recurring annual license charge.
- For a 3-engine system – a $11,250.00 recurring annual license charge.
Since, in previous multitasking software development I have done, I understand the need to find any locking/synchronization problems between tasks. To do that, I would need at least a 2-engine zPDT®! As an individual developer, the associated costs ($900 + $299 + $7,500) are simply unrealistic.
I will most likely continue to develop software that I think may be useful, but will have to constrain those efforts to Linux or to Java-based applications. But I am still disappointed about not being able to continue using skills learned over all those years…
Staying as legal as possible, z/OS®, z/VM®, and zPDT® are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.