# IBM Z mainframe 23 Hacker News commenters recommended IBM Z mainframe and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for reliability, availability and fast I/O, and for running old workloads on modern hardware. Main caveat: high price and binding to IBM hardware. ## Why people recommend it - Reliable, fault tolerant, highly available (4 comments): "The modern mainframe is the best state of the art platform for computing, in both reliability and efficiency." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47130033)) "If you can afford it it pays for itself in terms of reliability and scalability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49459194)) "reliability, availability, and service features mainframes have/had" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46088282)) - Custom, state-of-the-art silicon hardware (3 comments): "To their credit, IBM is still making zArchitecture chips that aren’t completely humiliated by x86 and ARM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46028715)) "Their hardware is still cool custom built silicon and imo state of the art" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47613242)) "IBM makes some really amazing hardware at the very top of the market" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47932711)) - Very fast I/O and processing (3 comments): "they have access to the same caching mechanisms as the main processor (which are quite insane)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47613523)) "From what I have heard they are still really fast with I/O" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48379754)) "feels like a normal server that's just ludicrously fast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49456632)) - Runs legacy workloads well (2 comments): "They stick with COBOL because it runs well on the mainframe." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47129579)) "they get to run the old workloads on modern hardware" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790392)) ## What people warn about - High price and cost (3 comments): "IBM stuff is likely to expensive and optimized for different things" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49180441)) "the high price cancels out all the value of that work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49456559)) "so goddamn weird and expensive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46834685)) - Binds customers to IBM hardware (3 comments): "IBM has done this, despite it being an inferior technical solution, because it binds those who choose it to IBM hardware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49924646)) "the way IBM writes support contracts incentivizes customers to work very hard at moving workloads to Windows/UNIX" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46780331)) "Mainframes are the opposite, you usually get the full monty machine that is extremely limited by licensing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48270730)) - Restrictive licensing and contracts (3 comments): "Mainframes are the opposite, you usually get the full monty machine that is extremely limited by licensing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48270730)) "utterly appalled they'd treat their big customers like that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790553)) "you can't use any of them without paying" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588862)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Oxide Computer rack](https://hackerapproved.com/p/oxide-computer.md): 92 recommend - [IBM POWER](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ibm-power.md): 13 recommend - [Nvidia GH200 server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-gh200-server.md): 12 recommend - [IBM AS/400](https://hackerapproved.com/p/as-400.md): 11 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.ibm.com/products/z) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "IBM Z mainframe", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ibm-mainframe/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).