Re: [Stretch] Status for architecture qualification
On 14 June 2016 at 20:22, <alexmcwhirter@triadic.us> wrote:
> On 2016-06-14 03:06, Philipp Kern wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 07:33:56PM +0000, Niels Thykier wrote:
>>>
>>> Philipp Kern:
>>> > On 2016-06-05 12:01, Niels Thykier wrote:
>>> >> * amd64, i386, armel, armhf, arm64, mips, mipsel, powerpc, ppc64el,
>>> >> s390x
>>> >> - *No* blockers at this time from RT, DSA nor security.
>>> >> - s390, ppc64el and all arm ports have DSA concerns.
>>> > What is the current DSA concern about s390x?
>>> The concern listed as: "rely on sponsors for hardware (mild concern)"
>>>
>>> As I recall the argument went something along the lines of:
>>>
>>> "Debian cannot replace the hardware; if any of the machines dies, we
>>> need a sponsor to replace it. If all of them dies and we cannot get
>>> sponsored replacements, we cannot support the architecture any longer"
>>>
>>> (My wording)
>>
>>
>> Yeah, but that's unfortunately one of the universal truths of this port.
>> I mean in theory sometimes they turn up on eBay and people try to make
>> them work[1].
>>
>> It also seems true for other ports where we commonly relied on sponsors
>> to hand us replacements. But maybe it's only ppc64el these days, maybe
>> there are useful builds available for the others (including arm64 and
>> mips) on the market now.
>>
>> Kind regards and thanks
>> Philipp Kern
>>
>> [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45X4VP8CGtk
>> (Here's What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe)
>
>
> Fun story, i had a client who was considering getting their hands on a Z9,
> they asked me a few others to go with them to see IBM present a demo of it.
> Long story short the IBM guys started a job and literally started pulling
> CPU and Mem boards out of the machine mid job. The error log on the OS/2
> maintenance laptop was going crazy, but the OS kept running the job.
>
> In other words, i don't think a s390x box will ever just die. Really
> interesting machines to say the least, hopefully one day i will get to play
> with one. The other issues with s390x is that in most cases you don't buy
> them. You essentially lease the CPU usage and IBM charges you based on how
> much CPU usage you've consumed over a given time. It makes me wonder how
> they ever get on eBay. IBM typically takes them back after you stop paying
> for it.
>
In the talk he did say that for that acient machine he was offered
subscription to the upgraded z/OS for some small amount of dollars a
quarter.
There is openmainframe project https://www.openmainframeproject.org/ ,
which I believe offers access to z/VM instances hosted by Marist
colledge.
At the openmainframeproject EU meetup, it was indicated that SUSE
joined with indication that Open Build Service might be able to use
resources hosted by Marist.
I wonder if it makes sense to reach out, and see if there are
resources available to use as porter boxes & build boxes. That way
Debian might be able to get such donated resource available on ongoing
basis and hopefully with some hw support.
--
Regards,
Dimitri.
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