Good Book and Interesting Thought?

["Stone, Brad V (TC)" <bvstone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just read "In the Beginning was the command Line" by Neal Stephenson.  I
got hooked on his writing after reading Snow Crash (a must read to any
techie).

It spoke of Windows, Mac, how the GUI makes users think they are hackers,
etc.  I agreed with most of what he had to say.

He also spoke about Linux and BeOS.  The interesting thing to me was how Be
Inc. started out making their OS hardware dependant.  (sound familiar?)
Then, to stay alive they ported BeOS to Mac and Mac Clones because they ran
on the same type of chips (gee, who also uses those same types of chips?).
Then, when Mac Clone went away, they also ported BeOS to Intel saving their
hides once again.  Very interesting survival method. 

What made this interesting to me was that IBM seems to be doing the exact
opposite.  Instead of porting OS400 to other hardware (ie Intel), they are
importing everything else TO the AS400 (Apache, Linux, PASE, etc...).  Too
bad Neal didn't discuss this because I'm sure he would have had some
interesting viewpoints (I metioned this in my Amazon review I did, so maybe
he'll see it..hehe..)

Anyone have any thoughts on this?  Is IBM's strategy, exactly opposite of
Be, just half a dozen of the other, or a risky game?

Brad
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