When zPDT is installed (on Linux), normal System z operating systems (such as IBM z/OS®) can be run on it. IBM System z® Personal Development Tool (IBM zPDT®), which produces a small System z environment suitable for application development. Hercules runs under Linux, Windows (98, NT, 2000, and XP), Solaris, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X (10.3 and later). Hercules – Hercules is an open source software implementation of the mainframe System/370 and ESA/390 architectures, in addition to the new 64-bit z/Architecture. What options are there? There are two emulators I’ll cover my journey in getting the product and installing it, so anyone following in my footsteps will know what to expect and the time frame. At the end of this process I had the software installed on my laptop, many unwanted DVDs, and a lot of unnecessary cardboard. Up here in Orkney the weather can change every day, so instead of buying a fast car with an open top, when I retired, I got z/OS running on my laptop for the similar sort of price! This means I can continue “playing” with z/OS and MQ, and helping the next generation to use z/OS. Some people retire and buy an open top sports car or big motorbike.
