RE: Microsoft thwarted again -- MIDRANGE-L

>DNS is a utility.  

OK, we can all have our own definitions. Mine would be along the lines of: A 
Utility - nice to have, but not a requirement. An Application - Something 
necessary to running the business. Unless you're prepared to live the rest of 
your life on a green-screen (perhaps so?) then DNS isn't a "nice to have" it's 
a requirement. 

>To start with, it requires no relational database.

Ignoring the fact that it's from MS, and you hate MS. Would you not consider 
Word an "application?" Oh, you refer specifically to DATABASE applications, ok.

>I suspect you've never actually written an operating system...

Actually, I went to college for Computer Engineering. I've written OSs and 
spent time in a clean room etching the silicon wafers on which they ran. In 
fairness, I've never developed a production-level OS, but so what! The majority 
of people on this list aren't in the job of building operating systems, their 
in the job of providing solutions to their users that further the business 
objectives.

>Someone who has never actually written one wouldn't appreciate 
>OS/400, with its many IOPs and its single level
>store and its sophisticated task management.

Actually, I appreciate the technological elligance of the iSeries quite a bit, 
but I've got a news flash for you, my users could care less about task 
switching, IOPs or taged pointers, they want an application that serves the 
business.

>Completely ignoring the fact that more hardware means MORE points of failure...

Yes, I agree more hardware means more points of failure as measured at the 
hardware level. But again, you miss my point, I'm not looking for hardware 
reliability, nor am I looking for OS reliability, I'm looking for APPLICATION 
reliability. If my application is implemented across 5 servers located in two 
physical locations and a meteor hits one, WHO CARES! The APPLICATION continues 
to run. I don't care how reliable a single piece of hardware or OS installation 
is, one of anything won't outlast several of everything. If you think it will, 
why don't you remove RAID protection from all your "reliable" iSeries hardware.

>research Betamax. Windows is the VHS of operating systems.

Ooooo, I love this! Perhaps what you say is true, but have you bought a Betamax 
tape recently? You're that Betamax guy screaming from the rooftops about the 
technical superiority of your format, not noticing that the world has decided 
that VHS is the way to go! Believe me, I hope that the iSeries is NOT Betamax. 
Despite my pro-MS position, I still love the iSeries, but it doesn't exist in a 
vaccuum, and continuing to ignore the competition just moves the iSeries closer 
to Betamax status every day. BTW, what's Linux, DVD? <G>

-Walden

------------
Walden H Leverich III
President & CEO
Tech Software
(516) 627-3800 x11
WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.TechSoftInc.com

Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
(Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)