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Here's What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe

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2 HN users recommended this talk2 months2018–2025 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN commenters cite it as an entertaining example of a teenager buying, hosting and booting a real mainframe.

Connor Krukosky, an 18-year-old college student and vintage computer collector, tells how he bought an IBM z890 mainframe and got it running at home. The talk was given at SHARE in San Antonio in March 2016.

“it's an entertaining 45 minutes” (HN, 2020)

2 recommendations · 7 citations · Talks

9 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@galoisgirl Dec 2020 Recommends
on HN thread GnuCOBOL 3.1.1
He did, his talk about it is really interesting: [this video] > He and his old computer friends played around with some applications that were on the platform, and even made an FTP server that put some data on the internet. Per [link]
Talk about getting a mainframe running at home

Citations, criticism and jokes

@dredmorbius Jul 2018 Cites it
on HN thread Hello World on z/OS
C'mon, you just needa little motivation. ;-) Here's What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe [this video]
Motivational example of a teenager running a mainframe
@dbg31415 Feb 2019 Cites it
on HN thread The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent
Consumer tech has been refined and dumbed down to the point where everything just sort of magically works, and since it's "magic" you never have to dive into the nuts and bolts. By making it so easy to use, we are depriving people of their opportunities to organically learn like people in my generation had to. Exceptions exist. * Here's What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe - YouTube || [this video]
Cited as an exception to dumbed-down consumer tech
@chiph Nov 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Bernie Madoff’s unwitting accomplice: The AS/400 (2009)
If you do, blog about it. One of the challenges in getting an old mainframe (System 360, 3090, etc) running is getting a license for the operating system from IBM. Hopefully acquiring one for the AS/400 is easier. [this video]
Example of getting an old mainframe running
@jamal-kumar May 2022 Cites it
on HN thread OpenVMS on x86
Wasn't there that kid that IBM uses as a sort of new mascot for mainframe stuff who bought an old mainframe and got it working in his basement? [1] [1] [this video]
Kid who revived an old mainframe in his basement
@timewizard Apr 2025 Cites it
on HN thread A Tour Inside the IBM Z17
It depends on how full those drawers are. $250k to $1m would be the typical price range. It's easier and harder at the same time to buy older hardware. That's half the challenge though because the software is strictly licensed and you pay per MIPS. Here's a kid who bought a mainframe and then brought it up: [this video]
Example of a kid buying and booting a mainframe

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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