"Tron" - remember that? If you do, you're definitely old enough to be a mainframer.
Then again, pretty soon, the average mainframer may be so young they won't even remember Y2K.
And that's OK. As the first generations of mainframers pass the torch to the next generation, the important thing is that the new generation inherits something that works.
That's the beauty of the mainframe - just like the word "legacy," its underlying essence is "it works".
What does it work for? Business. Nothing more, nothing less. What a concept: a computer that isn't about technology - it's about the organizations that pay the bills.
Which is a million miles away from the popular image of mainframes as mystical devices that contain some über-intelligence capable of outthinking humanity while manifesting as a graphical simulation of an intellectual titan.
In reality, mainframes are the most practical of all machines: they make business work.
After all, as mainframers we all know that. "Mainframe" does not mean a supercomputer capable of being a cyber-controller (as depicted in "I, Robot") capable of running the world. Nor does it mean a technological marvel that can emulate human thought and facial expressions.
Much more mundanely, it is an advanced business computer that runs COBOL and Assembler (and CA Easytrieve and PL/1 and C and...) programs that "work" in terms of making the world's most important organizations function effectively in their roles of succeeding and keeping the world's economy running.
Not very intimidating, but definitely needed. And, while it's not a terrifying monster or intelligence, it's certainly a good thing.
Because there's another important thing the mainframe is not: going away.
And that's why it's time for us mainframers to get the word out to our colleagues, managers and friends, because right now it's not very well known outside the mainframe community how important, if unintimidating, this machine is.
So tell me: what can you do to get the word out about what the mainframe is and is not?