Re: A boost for Linux on the 400

Hey Don, better get that asbestos suit on pronto!

While I believe that the threat mentioned by the security analysis in the
article was worst-case scenario, it just gives the IT world one more reason to
consider non-Microsoft OS'es.  (And, no, I don't trust anything Microsoft says
anymore.)

Acknowledging that Windows is a poor excuse for an operating system, if I had
my druthers, we'd all be using OS/2, but I won't go there.  <sob>

I can't answer your question as it relates to Linux, so this is "In My
Uninformed Opinion-Guess", but if IBM ever gets Linux to install on an
iSeries/400 without OS/400 (isn't that the goal?), it seems to me that you
lose the cost of OS/400 and all of the other LPPs; now you're just paying for
the hardware, which gets the total initial cost into a competitive range and,
perhaps, TCO is an outright bargain (heh!).

Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952

-------------------------- Original Message --------------------------

On Thu, 28 Dec 2000, Neil Palmer wrote:

> This is the type of Microsoft "publicity" that just may lead more people
> to look at replacing Windows with Linux - hopefully on a 400 !

OK, now, maybe I'm not seeing something here, but....   It's my
understanding that in effect Linux runs as a symbiant on the 400 and that
it runs on top of OS/400 or in effect requires OS/400 to be installed as
the base/hose o/s.  Which means that you have to have os/400 to run
linux...which is to say that Linux is NOT the base o/s on the box.

I think this is correct so far, and I'm sure I'll get a flood of email if
I'm wrong.

What the above scenerio begs is the question of "why would ANYONE buy a
AS/400 just to run Linux"?  Guys, you can get a raid-5/mirrored pentium
server to load linux on for a FRACTION of the price of a 400....
So, why would someone spend the extra bucks for the 400 just to load linux
on it?  I know.  I'm getting a pentium box now to load linux/apache on at
the office here...then my systems will be almost complete (NT, Linux, DOS,
Windows,NT server, (Super Secret system from Rochester MN that IBM
sells)...only thing left I might want would be a MPE box...:)

What don't I see here that I missing?

Don in DC (bracing for onslaught of flames...:)
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