Maybe this belongs on the Linux-390 list - but since the thread started here, let's continue it here.
If I were IBM, I would gather some of the smart Z/VM/Linux folk, and I would go to places like Google, Yahoo!, or Six Apar with some mainframes in a trailer already running a hundred-or-so virtual Linux instances, for a week or three. I'd let the company build their software on those Linux images and test it out. If they want to test for longer, something like six months, I'd loan them the machines FOR FREE, along with priority access to smart folks back at the ranch (I'm not saying Google or Six Apart are guilty of this - but many people just don't think about the incredible amount of knowledge and intelligence within IBM). Treat it like a Redbook Residency for "extremely-large-scale Web applications on z/Linux". Add one unusual contractual requirement: everyone on the project blogs it all - with no sales department censorship. I think the companies will be surprised that their work can run on mainframes without major headaches; and I believe that they will also see a potential to improve the cost of operations with the z/Series better environmentals compared to a server farm. At the end of the process, you'd have web gurus singing the praises of the hardware (in my opinion) and both IBM and the large-scale web folks would have a great understanding of what it would take to sell zSeries boxes to the next generation of large businesses, what it takes to support it, and how the hardware handles it. Via the blogging component, you will have exposed the hardware to a large number of web gurus that we don't normally reach through SHARE and other venues, and will help overcome the image of mainframes as ancient technology. Tim Hare Senior Systems Programmer Florida Department of Transportation (850) 414-4209 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
