Re: Linux (see smaller server Iseries)

[thomas@xxxxxxxxxxx]

On Fri, 25 January 2002, "Nathan M. Andelin" wrote:

> That quote from Yahoo sounded rather silly to me.  IBM recouped it's cost of
> MVS years ago.

It's hard to imagine IBM foregoing a big bunch of profit from MVS (or z/OS or 
whatever) by offering Linux in its place. I suspect that the profit margin is 
reasonably similar and that the price difference reflects some actual costs, 
perhaps costs of ongoing maintenance and enhancement. Those costs might drop 
significantly with Linux allowing lower price per server.

Of course, if the Linux server idea really caught on, then cash-flow to support 
proprietary maintenance/enhancement could shrink and we'd see less enhancement 
in OS/400 (or z/OS or...).

The way out for IBM would be to have higher profit margins on the Linux servers 
(at least as a percentage of server cost.)

Unfortunately, if that actually worked, then there'd be no incentive to 
continue OS/400 (or whatever.)

Tom Liotta

--
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788
Fax  253-872-7904
http://www.400Security.com


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