There are numerous reasons for this, including fantastic support for advanced 3270 features and built-in tools for things like FTP transfers. While there are countless makes and models of 3270 terminals, I have found that most mainframers running Windows use the IBM Personal Communications Tool (called PCOMM for short). Step One: Find a good 3270 Terminal Emulator This guide seeks to help mainframe professionals maximize the use of their MacBooks when working with mainframes via 3270 terminal emulation. In fact, a recent study has suggested that IBMers are collectively only second to Apple is the number of employees using OS X and iOS devices.

Between IBM post-ThinkPad endpoint-agnosticism and the growing popularity of iOS and Mac OS X, it should therefore be no surprise that an increasing number of mainframe professionals seek to find ways to use Apple computers, phones, and tablets to administer and run mainframe environments. Although Microsoft continues to fight both Apple in the PC and mobile market and IBM in the Enterprise market, IBM and Apple now exist in entirely separate and distinct market sectors. Following the return of Steve Jobs, Apple began its march back to popularity starting with the 1998 iMac, and massively accelerating following the 2001 release of the iPod, the 2007 release of the iPhone, and the 2010 release of the iPad. Despite creating the dominant PC architecture, IBM sold its ThinkPad division to Lenovo in 2005. However, this open standard would also eventually undermine IBM by waves of hardware commoditization by “IBM Compatibles” that would eventually allowed Microsoft to displace IBM as the PC hegemon, undermine the OS/2 operating system, and ensure the dominance of Microsoft Windows.įast forward two decades, and the competitive landscape appears quite different. IBM’s open hardware standards and marketing expertise led the IBM PC standard to dominate the market. In contract, Apple was the scrappy start-up of California hippie types. Big Blue was East Coast, big, bureaucratic, and specialized in big computers that seemed impersonal and perhaps distopic (e.g. Indeed, in the 1980s and early 1990s, much of the tech world was captivated by the battle between Big Blue and Apple Computer for the future of personal computing. It may seem strange to think that users, application developers, and systems programmers of IBM mainframes may use a Mac 3270 solution for serious work.

Mac 3270? Water and Vinegar? How Mainframers began to use Macs

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