On 06/23/2009 12:32 PM, Mark Post wrote:
On 6/23/2009 at 2:02 AM, Kenneth Holter<kenneho....@gmail.com> wrote:
-snip-
From the replies I got I was under the impression that EPEL-like repos for
z/Linux allready exists - not necessarily z/Linux packages within EPEL, but
perhaps a repo similar to EPEL. If anyone knows where to find this repo
please feel free to send me a link to it.
I would be (mildly) surprised if anyone outside of Red Hat was compiling
significant numbers of packages for RHEL on System z. The number of Red Hat on
System z installations is relatively small and most mainframe shops are
reluctant to run software that doesn't come directly from their distribution
provider or a trusted ISV.
Mark Post
Many OSS developers simply don't have access to s390x machines to
build their packages on, regardless of the Novell vs Red Hat battle.
That issue is being lessened via the developer VMs available at Marist,
and now Fedora for System z (announced to this list last week).
And I'll bite regarding the "relatively small" RHEL on System z
installations FUD. I'll be the very first to admit that Red Hat hasn't
overtaken Novell in historical market share _/yet/_, but I'll gently
remind you of a few fun facts:
1) In 2004, Red Hat held 1.34% of the global Linux on System z market.
By August 2008, we grew to 33%. By November 2008, it was 37.8%. I
spoke about this growth and have the slides, numbers, and call recording
published at
http://www.redhat.com/rhel/server/mainframe/partnerupdate/. This data
is called out on slide 6 of the recording and slides available on that URL.
2) In 2006 we started tracking how many IFL hardware IFL sales IBM made
and comparing that to how many Linux on System z subscriptions Red Hat
sold. In 2006 Red Hat shipped 21% to net-new IFL hardware sales. 2007
this grew to 39%. 2008 to grew 110%. In 2008 Red Hat began shipping
more RHEL for System z subscriptions than IBM shipped physical IFLs,
demonstrating that we are converting a large chunk of our competitors
business. Our competitors being CentOS, other free Linux distros (i.e.
Debian, Slack/390) and Novell SLES. This is called out on slide 5 of
the above mentioned webinar.
3) When IBM reinvigorated their Linux on System z efforts in 2007 it was
exclusively with Red Hat
[http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/21513.wss]
I'm accutely aware of the Novell marketing stating they have 80%
share [e.g.: http://home.comcast.net/~cavmen/SLE11-200906-CAVMEN.pdf,
slide 4]. I fully agreed with that statement in 2007. Things have changed.
<plug>
Also, people will note that our public data ends in August 2008.
Red Hat will be holding a joint analyst/press call mid July regarding
our updated status on System z. Contact me off-list for details on
that. Unfortunately this call will only be open to analysts, however I'd
expect the press to release their findings in a public forum shortly
after the call.
</plug>
--
Shawn D. Wells
Global System z Platform Manager
Cell: (+1) 443-534-0130 (GMT -5)
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