“I learned that the combination of big-iron hardware and
hard-core operating systems like OS/360 or OS/390 makes for systems
so stable that they make Unix look downright shaky. My Unix boxes
can go for months without a crash. I spent three years in the early
’80s working on IBM and Amdahl mainframes, and they never went
down. Now, if only it were easier to run anything on a
mainframe–like running Linux for its far-friendlier user interface
and application development environment. Of course, that’s exactly
what IBM is doing.“
“Linux on a mainframe isn’t a joke. IBM thinks that by bringing
Linux to a mainframe, customers will be able to run the Apache Web
server, the Samba file/print servers and other popular Linux-based
services on System/390s.”
“Besides making life easier for developers and users, that
serves two purposes. The first is that it teaches new interactive
application tricks to the old mainframe dog. The second is that by
giving Linux apps incredible I/O and stability, the combination
becomes much more attractive. To whom, you ask? IBM’s hope is that
it will be especially fascinating to e-commerce sites.”