The industry term "open" as I know it is not usually applied to Windows but rather to *nix and refers to software compatibility, not license enforcement.
Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Timothy Sipples Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2015 11:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Term "Open Systems" (as Sometimes Currently Used) is Dead -- Who's with Me? One of my pet peeves is that some people -- even a few "experts" -- in the IT industry persist in using the term "open system" to refer to whatever is not a mainframe. I believe words ought to have meaning, including the word "open." So let's take a look at what some people still continue to call an "open system," Microsoft Windows Server (on X86-based servers), and compare that to z/OS on an IBM z System. Let's consider Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (in beta testing currently and scheduled for release in early 2016) with z/OS 2.2 (scheduled for release later this month). While it's possible Microsoft and IBM could change their products before release, I do not expect any material changes that would affect this particular comparison. The "open" Microsoft Windows Server includes these "features": 1. Activation keys. In order to make Microsoft Windows Server fully operable you need a license key and must "activate" your installation of Windows. Microsoft has made some provision for enterprises to manage keys (and have enterprise key servers), but everybody still must use keys and activation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
