[ Thanks to Bruce Holzrichter for
this link. ]
“IBM has decided to implement Linux on the AS/400 in a
logical partition (LPAR). “It’s a way to incorporate Linux
that makes sense and agrees with existing applications,” says Ian
Jarman, AS/400 product marketing manager.”
“Running a Linux kernel natively in an LPAR allows for
64-bit scalability, says Jarman, and gives Linux that PowerPC punch
– which IBM expects to be a big draw in attracting new applications
to the platform. The AS/400 division considered implementing
Linux on the Integrated Netfinity Server, but that wouldn’t take
advantage of the AS/400’s hallmark scalability, Jarman says.
“Leveraging the AS/400’s scalability [by implementing Linux in an
LPAR] will give our mid-market customers Linux options they don’t
have today on an Intel platform.”
“Jarman says it doesn’t make sense to release a proprietary
Linux, so the kernel and operating system will be pure Linux.
However, IBM must provide device drivers to integrate Linux with
existing applications. On the whole, IBM has no plans to release
its own distribution of Linux but instead supports existing Linux
distributions from Red Hat, Caldera Systems, SuSE, and TurboLinux.
While IBM isn’t yet talking release dates for Linux on the AS/400,
it won’t be available this year, Jarman says. However, IBM hopes to
demo an AS/400-native Linux at a trade show this year, probably at
a Linux-specific conference.”
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