From: dutch@sysun.com (Dutch Owen) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: A family portrait Date: 20 Feb 2004 10:57:00 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lines: 54 Message-ID: <35cda921.0402201057.75e76953@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 64.241.26.126 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1077303420 8913 127.0.0.1 (20 Feb 2004 18:57:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 18:57:00 +0000 (UTC) Path: redlance.franklin.ch!pfaff2.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!irazu.switch.ch!switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail Xref: redlance.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:164968 The IBM mainframe software family, circa 1976. MVS: The patriarch; strong, capable, the solid family breadwinner, widely admired, feared, loved and resented. Most outsiders, when they think of the family, think of him. He's big and usually affable on the outside, but can be prickly and unapproachable, until you get to know him very, very well. Has an ego problem: deep down, he's absolutely sure that he's the only one that really matters. OS/VS1: The quiet, unassuming, hardworking mother. Unspectacular and often hardly noticed, she likes to stay in the background. Known for her loyalty and affinity to her husband, over the years they have in many ways come to even look alike. Many people outside the family have never even met her, or didn't remember it when they did. VM/370: The bright young up-and-coming son. Smart, fast, modern, and rebellious; he rejects almost every aspect of his father's conservatism, and is proud of it. Glib and easy to know and like, he's popular whenever he's met outside the family, but inside, he's suspected and resented. He's just so...different. But it's hard to imagine the family without him. He can do so many things so well. His worst trait is his arrogance. His dad just *thinks* of himself as the cream de la cream; the son *knows* it's really him no matter what the others say. Favorite saying: "The future belongs to me." DOS/VS: The modest, popular, ugly, funny, and very quirky older daughter. She's so odd many find it hard to hate her, but some do, and those do so with a passion. The family mostly just tolerates her, and if she got married and moved away you get the feeling they wouldn't miss her all that much. But her fans sure would. Her favorite saying: "I ain't pretty, but I work hard." OS/360: The iracible old grandfather living in the basement. The family wishes he'd just die, but he won't. His best trait is the many old stories he has accumulated over the years and the funny way he tells them. But he's given to fits of rage and depression, and suffers a bit from multiple personality disorder. The rest of the family likes to keep him out of sight, but it's hard to do sometimes. It's not really his fault, he suffered a few too many birth defects due to his long and difficult delivery. Early on, someone told him he was the King, and he's still looking for his crown. DOS/360: The grandmother so old and frail hardly anyone believes she's still around. Seems to have transmitted all of her quirks to her grandaughter, but she's long since been forgiven as well as forgotten. Lonely in the nursing home, she's seldom visited. There are many days when she longs to be planted next to her daddy IBSYS and her brother TOS/360 in eternal rest. Pretty much everyone else longs for the same thing. "This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands." ---Dutch ###### From: Alan Balmer Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: A family portrait Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 13:09:52 -0700 Organization: Balmer Consulting Lines: 17 Message-ID: References: <35cda921.0402201057.75e76953@posting.google.com> Reply-To: albalmer@spamcop.net NNTP-Posting-Host: wsip-66-210-59-5.ph.ph.cox.net (66.210.59.5) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de 1077307793 48492261 I 66.210.59.5 ([162642]) Cancel-Lock: sha1:6FOyBcVsURf9/0b2bOhRWYou8DY= X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) X-NFilter: 1.2.0 Path: redlance.franklin.ch!pfaff2.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!wsip-66-210-59-5.ph.ph.cox.NET!not-for-mail Xref: redlance.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:164978 On 20 Feb 2004 10:57:00 -0800, dutch@sysun.com (Dutch Owen) wrote: >The IBM mainframe software family, circa 1976. I liked that. Thanks for the post. I remember someone coming back from a DOS convention with a button that said OS goes Whee! Bump! Whee! Bump! DOS goes Hummmmmmm... -- Al Balmer Balmer Consulting removebalmerconsultingthis@att.net ###### From: adam@fsf.net (Adam Thornton) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: A family portrait Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 02:48:38 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Doghair Drifts Lines: 25 Message-ID: References: <35cda921.0402201057.75e76953@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dev-linux.fsf.net X-Trace: news.fsf.net 1077331718 22094 192.168.1.4 (21 Feb 2004 02:48:38 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@fsf.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 02:48:38 +0000 (UTC) X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test76 (Apr 2, 2001) Originator: adam@fsf.net (Adam Thornton) Path: redlance.franklin.ch!pfaff2.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!irazu.switch.ch!switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!npeer.de.kpn-eurorings.net!newsfeed.yul.equant.net!nntp1.roc.gblx.net!nntp.gblx.net!nntp.gblx.net!xcski.com!news.fsf.net!not-for-mail Xref: redlance.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:165017 In article <35cda921.0402201057.75e76953@posting.google.com>, Dutch Owen wrote: >The IBM mainframe software family, circa 1976. Circa 2004: z/OS: Still the patriarch, still with the unassailable ego problem. Scarier than ever. VSE: Still the ugly older sister. Now an aging spinster with no prospects. Doesn't leave her room much anymore. Kinda sad, really. TPF: Rumored to still be alive, but that's just because a postcard shows up every so often. MUSIC/SP: dead, but somehow being kept going with minimal brain functionality by a strange, low-budget life support system that also keeps reanimating MVS 3.8 and VM/370r6. Necromancy is funny stuff. z/VM: Long ignored by everyone, spent a number of years in a deep depression shooting heroin in a dingy apartment on the Wrong Side Of Town and sliding slowly into obscurity. Clean and sober now and back with a vengeance, because he went and did something crazy and married: z/Linux: an exotic beauty, Not From Around Here. Has brought a lot of attention to the family, because she and her sisters are well-known everywhere outside the family. z/OS can't get used to her and tries to pretend she doesn't exist. Adam