I agree that an admin wouldn't have as much flexibility, but from an
application programmers standpoint it had everything I needed for the year I
used it. Looks like they just added the PHP support also - nice for those
that want to play around with that before they install it on their machines.
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lukas Beeler
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:44 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: i5OS running as a VM on PC
Hi,
The problem i see with such a service are multiple:
a) "Production use"?
If IBM offers this as a very low cost option, they will probably forbid any
productive use, which can kill this offer. Most of the it professionals in
my age bracket have started with their own Windows/Linux machines in their
basement, experimenting on it, running their email, domains, webhosting,
central authentication, filesharing on it. In the case of Windows, licenses
were obtained through "different"
means.
If IBM doesn't allow productive use, nobody will want to play with a system
they can't use for nothing except programming exercises that aren't used by
anything else.
If IBM DOES allow productive use, they'll open another can of worms. Why
should a very small company purchase a 515 for 10k, pay for maintenance,
etc. instead of just getting access to a much better machine for 30$ a
month?
b) "I want to own it"-Problem
You don't have your own machine, you're just renting space on someone elses.
Maybe this mentality is different in the US, but if a have my own machine in
which I've invented time to setup and get it working, this is something else
than writing an email and getting an IP and u:pw back.
This is not directly related to IBM itself, it's just a general problem with
hosted services.
c) What about admins?
I'm not a developer, and I want to play with other stuff than developers do.
I don't care much about WDSC. It's an application for developers. I want to
play with a HMC. I want to play with the hardware. I want to see what
happens when you fuck something up. I want to know how professional backup
software works (like BRMS).
In the x86 world, I can get a halfway decent pc server from HP or IBM for
$1000-1500, including an iLO or RSA card. I can get an older LTO drive from
ebay and play with professional backupsoftware.
You can't make an admin happy with a virtualized machine. Half of the funny
games are missing.
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 4:23 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: i5OS running as a VM on PC
From: Jones, John (US)
The idea is that each user (or student class or other grouping) gets
their own LPAR. They are free to IPL and do other things as they
wish.
If they royally much it up IBM will restore from the last backups (1
free restore per year; additional ones cost some marginal fee).
<snipping a lot of other relevant details>
John, this is a great idea. It would cost IBM one big honking server (some
of which they could mark as a charitable expense if they did it right, but I
digress). The support costs would be offset by the fees. A base price of
less than your monthly DSL or cable service would put it in the right
ballpark.
Anyone see why this wouldn't work?
Joe
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