[ Thanks to Will
Crowe for this link. ]
“I know what you’re thinking. Twenty-five years of
research and development poured into the object-oriented,
hardware-integrated, database-centered iSeries ends up facing off
against a … a penguin? Can this be? What can our jobs and
professional careers have to do with a budget operating system that
you can buy for less than $50 in a bookstore?Plenty, it turns out. IBM believes in Linux enough to have
ported it to its entire line of computer systems, from desktops to
mainframes. Why? The answer is part popularity and part politics,
but the deciding factor is synergy. In the end, it all boils down
to new missions for iSeries hardware and new ways to leverage your
existing skill set.Linux’s surging popularity hasn’t escaped the notice of the
marketeers at IBM. All IBM’s platform developers, including the
iSeries developers in Rochester, have now ported Linux to their
environments in the hope of opening new markets and attracting new
customers. But the iSeries has something to offer the Linux
community that none of IBM’s other systems do: high reliability at
an affordable price.”