Re: Insider Weekly Interview

On Wed, Sep 29, 1999 at 08:02:46PM -0400, Jason M. Felice wrote:
> So I'd like to ask a few questions to satisfy my own curiosity:  The first 
> one is somewhat of a poll:  What _do_ you use Linux for, specifically with
> how it relates to the AS/400?

Well, Linux is pretty much the standard platform for network servers (www,
mail, file serving) here.  The 400 holds most of the company's data.
Beyond that, I'm not sure to what degree the 400 works with other things
on the network, as it's run by other people in a different office.
I'm using tn5250 because I have to do a good bit of programming on the 400 
and I run Linux on my desktop.

> The last two questions, Peter asked directly:
> What is the biggest drawback of using the 5250 emulator on Linux?

The thing's still in development.  Thus, there are occasional bugs that I
have to work around in order to get my real work done.  Fortunately, the
bugs are becoming fewer and farther between.

> What is the biggest benefit of using the 5250 emulator on Linux?

I get to use a 5250 emulator in Linux.  :)
Seriously, that's the best thing about tn5250.  I prefer to run Linux
because it's tremendously more stable than Windows.  I also provide a few
network services from my box, and people get annoyed if you reboot while
they're accessing a shared file.  I also run some network monitoring
software in Linux that would probably cost several thousand dollars to get 
a similar program for Windows.  So, when I'm in Windows, I get holes in my 
network statistics.  With tn5250, I rarely have to reboot into Windows,
while, when I was using Client Access, rebooting was a daily task.  (More
than daily, actually, because I had to deal with Windows' crashes.)
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