Open Source Ecosystem for IBM Z and LinuxONE: May 2026 Status Report

Author: Elizabeth K. Joseph
Date: Posted 4 days ago
Topic: s390x Architecture Innovations

Open Source for IBM Z and LinuxONE

Overview of the s390x Landscape

The hardware architecture known as s390x powers both IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE. This robust environment supports a wide array of Linux distributions, most notably:

RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux)
SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server)
Ubuntu

While thousands of packages are available through community distributions, IBM maintains a dedicated team that focuses on the optimization and validation of critical applications. This ensures that software doesn't just "run," but performs optimally on mainframe hardware.

The Validation Workflow

This is a continuous cycle of collaboration between IBM engineers and open-source maintainers.

May 2026 Validation Highlights

During May 2026, the team focused on verifying the latest versions of several key tools. The following software was validated:

Category	Validated Software Packages
Apache Suite	`Cassandra`, `Hbase`, `HTTP Server`, `Ignite`
Monitoring & Ops	`Beats`, `cAdvisor`, `Calico`, `Falco`, `Grafana`, `HAProxy`, `Htop`
Databases & Drivers	`Neo4j`, `PostgreSQL`, `MongoDB` (Java, PHP, and Ruby drivers)
Languages & Runtimes	`PHP`, `Python R`, `Ruby`, `Netty-tcnative`
Infrastructure & Misc	`Doxygen`, `OPA`, `OpenResty`, `PM2`, `RabbitMQ`, `Terraform`

Pro Tip: You can find the comprehensive historical list of all validated software at the IBM Community Z Open Source Software page.

Community Growth & New Support

The broader open-source community has seen a surge in s390x adoption, with ~~only a few~~ over 10 projects adding support this month!

Key Project Updates

Kuadrant dns-operator: Now includes CI and binaries for version v0.17.0.
go-simdjson: Added CI and updated the README.
aba: Integrated CI and updated documentation.
poof: Support officially added in release 0.6.0.
go-bin: Launched its first s390x wheels with version 1.26.3.
nginx-opentracing: Now features s390x CI and DockerHub images (starting at v0.42.0).
OpenSCM client: Added s390x to supported platforms as of v0.2.8.
Terraform: Version 1.15.4 is out, featuring binary downloads and DockerHub images.

Tux on s390x

Infrastructure & Hub Updates

GitHub Actions (IBM Z & Power):
- New on-boarding for ncruces/wasm2go and ncruces/go-sqlite3.
- NumPy is now being tested on IBM Z (previously Power-only).
Open Mainframe Project Software Hub:
- New builds: InfluxDB 3 Core, MySQL 8.4.8, and MySQL 9.6.0.
- Updates released for Spire and Beats.

Developer Resources & Call to Action

Are you a developer looking to port your project? Or perhaps you have custom patches for s390x builds?

Getting Started

If you want to test your application, the mathematical probability of success increases when you have actual hardware access: $\text{Success} \propto \text{Hardware Access} + \text{Community Support}$

Your Roadmap:

Sign up for the IBM LinuxONE Community Cloud.
Deploy a free VM (available for 120 days).
Identify necessary code changes for s390x optimization.
Apply for permanent resources via the official request form.

# Example: Checking your architecture on a LinuxONE VM
uname -m 
# Expected output: s390x

Contact & Support

If you need help, reach out to the Community Management team:

Email: [email protected]
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8 AM - 5 PM MT