R.S. wrote:
Edward E. Jaffe wrote:
Jon Brock wrote:
Not being an OS/2 aficianado, I don't have much of a reaction to the
news, but I am curious as to what IBM will run on our zBox HMC. I
would imagine some flavor of Linux. Anybody know?
IBM is dropping standard support for Warp 4 and Warp Server for
eBusiness (aka Warp 5). Support contracts are always available. No
doubt any embedded systems that use OS/2 will engage IBM support via
special contract. In the case of mainframe peripherals and attached
devices, it's IBM paying IBM. Just shuffling money around.
Not so simple. IBM delivers PCs with OS/2. These are "regular' PC's,
so year after year (month?) they have larger disk, new interfaces
(USB, AGP, PCI-X to nam a few), new graphic cards etc. All that staff
requires new device drivers, sometimes code debugging (or extending),
etc. It is also possible to detect bug which must be fixed. It HAVE TO
BE MAINTAINED.It is a cost, IMHO big cost. When no money is earned,
with except of "internal income" it becomes a problem.
Money shuffling around is inside of IBM, but as an effect WE PAY THIS
money when buying new z/Series equipment. The more exotic (less copies
sold in the world) system, the more expensive it is.
I'm not sure what your point is here. And, why are you shouting? There
is absolutely no need for panic.
There will likely be thousands of support contracts for OS/2 established
to cover all of the non-mainframe embedded systems as well as all of the
servers still running in enterprises large and small throughout the
world. (FWIW, we still run OS/2 servers here. The costs to migrate
outweigh the support costs -- so far.) That revenue will be
self-sustaining, at least in the short run.
As far as mainframe peripherals/attachments go, there are costs to
develop/maintain them no matter what operating systems are embedded.
There is a tremendous upside to IBM using its own systems like OS/2,
AIX, etc. in HMC, VTS, ESS, etc. By being self-contained and
self-reliant, IBM minimizes exposure to problems caused by inadequate
support from outside suppliers. Even the Linux-based embedded systems
and applications being discussed in this thread are developed,
configured, and maintained by IBM engineers. A zSeries mainframe
customer suffering an outage can't afford any less.
--
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| Edward E. Jaffe | |
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