Henry wrote: > having something OCO means it can't > be updated for new kernel releases, it can't be investigated when > problems are happening, it depends on IBM for everything. That is a > real business risk for people who depend on OSA cards for 390 data > communications.
Risk? I don't think that zSeries OS/390 (or z/OS) customers would think that their OSA cards are a business risk--any more than their Sysplex timers, coupling links, coupling facilities, etc etc etc are business risks. All of these are part of running modern 390/900 systems. You don't see the specs for the STI bus interface in the wild, either. This whole issue comes down to being a pissing contest between two different business models. Neither side will concede that the other side has merit. I like RedHat's words, but the term "RedHat standard kernel" bothers me a bit (isn't there only supposed to be *one* standard kernel?). And, the point has been made before, that IBM could be a bit more flexible. On this list, there seem to be more Linux people than "mainframe" people (or maybe the Linux folk are more vocal), so you'd be forgiven for thinking that popular opinion goes in favour of RedHat. But it's been discussed in the past that most Linux/390 or zLinux installations will be in sites that already have a mainframe--so they'll be trying to come to grips with the fact that they've got all this 'open source' stuff on their system! Heck, I'd go so far as to say that some shops might even be glad of a little IBM OCO that they can trust!!! ;) <rant> I think all this noise is doing more harm to Linux/390 than good--the ludicrous situation when RedHat released their distro must be avoided at all cost. People want to run RedHat. They want to use OSA. They don't want to see their hardware vendor and their software company arguing philosophy. We need more working together and less bitching on mailing lists. As long as RedHat persists in producing their non-standard kernels, they just need to make sure that IBM sees them a little while before release to ensure that their nasty OSA driver works with it--and they go to market together. </rant> Cheers, Vic Cross
