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A first look at IBM's Linux Community Development System

Within the next few days, IBM is slated to open the doors to the new Linux Community Development System (LCDS), giving away free access to a high-end S/390 mainframe with very few strings attached. The aim is to spur development of Open Source applications on S/390 Linux. Many Open Source projects of any size -- can't afford to buy a System/390 or zSeries mainframe to test their code for portability. IBM wants to help small-scale developers test their code on the big iron. So they've dedicated a beast of a machine to the LCDS project and are giving a free S/390 Linux instance, with full root privileges, to just about anyone who asks.