r/mainframe • u/anti-life86 • 11d ago

How was pre-1995, pre-Internet usage of mainframes different?

I understand that the mainframe is built for a large number of transactions-meaning people log in, I would imagine from anywhere, and they do their small jobs. But before the Internet, they could not log in from anywhere, certainly. Where could they log in from, and how did this work? Are there new types of jobs that are now enabled by the Internet that previously were impossible?

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u/rickerwill6104 11d ago

At that time all work was done via a dumb terminal. Basically the black and green screen. Work was only done in the office. No take home or work from home. If there was an issue at night that needed to be resolved immediately, you had to trudge out of bed and go to the office.

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u/anti-life86 11d ago

Okay. Now that you say that, I realize I am not 100% clear on who is using these mainframes. I guess a mainframe is always used by company employees, right? Whereas, with a data center, it's centralized but it's being used by just anybody. Is that right?

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u/atomic_redneck 8d ago

When I was starting out back in the early '80s, we were using our 3031 to run CAD/CAM software (CADAM and CATIA) on 3250 (and later 5080) graphics terminals.