RE: subject: iSeries Legends

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Walden H. Leverich III
>
> Um, TPC-C work for you? Lots of systems there with sub-second
> response times
> across thousands of users and multi-TERAbyte databases (including, um, uh,
> Windows machines <G>).

I know that, Walden.  But they cost alot more than Scott's FreeBSD machine.
Many don't have the uptime either.  You can isolate any single statistic and
compare it to the AS/400, but you miss out on the other issues.  In most
cases to get a PC-based OS performing to the level of OS/400 you're talking
about a lot of money in redundancy and support personnel.

The point is to look at the whole package, but every once in awhile someone
still complains that the AS/400 isn't as fast as their TRS-80 Model II, and
I have to dredge up the old "dedicated" vs. "multipurpose" discussion.

And inevitably someone ELSE <pointed look> brings up the super-duper
20,000-user Windows networks, of which there are perhaps three in existence,
in sealed clean rooms in Redmond, at a cost of $7,000,000 apiece.

And of course I'm being facetious, there are probably more than three, but
they are damned expensive and have a lot of support personnel.  Stick one of
those multi-user Windows networks in a closet for four years with no backup
and no maintenance, and tell me the likelihood that it's going to still be
running.

Joe