RE: subject: iSeries Legends

> From: Scott Klement
>
> So, a web server can't create any significant load on a system?   It's
> an easy job?   So, if I take my 5250 apps, and replace their screens with
> a web interface, they'll run faster and produce less load on my iSeries?

It's not about load, it's about complexity of work.  Web/mail serving is
orders of magnitude simpler than multitasking OLTP.  But you know what?  I
don't know your machine, and it's your contention that your box works as
hard as an AS/400.  I think you're absolutely off your rocker, but there's
no good way to really resolve this.  It could escalate into a flame war, or
at the least cause bad feelings, and rather than go there, I'm simply going
to bow out with a "no decision".

However, I will state that it is MY contention that an IDLING AS/400 is
doing more complex work than a fully loaded dedicated web/mail server.
That's my contention based on a career of writing applications and operating
systems.  I know in a general sense what a web server is doing down to the
interrupt level, and it's nothing compared to a self-adjusting system like
OS/400.  But I probably can't convince you, so I'll just let my statement
stand as my personal opinion.

And by the way, that explains why OS/400 isn't a screaming web server.
Because it's not dedicated to the task.  You are NEVER as close to the
hardware on OS/400, even coding in MI, as you are on a bare metal OS like
Unix.  You want to compare machines?  Show me a Unix box handling thousands
of OLTP users on gigabyte databases with subsecond response time.  That's my
version of the really unfair question "why doesn't the AS/400 match my 1996
PC".  Turn that question around: how many simultaneous 5250 users can your
1996 PC handle?

Anyway, we're unlikely to convince each other of much, except for the fact
that your toaster is the most reliable machine of the lot.

Joe