> You have a good plan and you might want to talk to SuSE and > 'encourage' > them to get their evaluation license in place.
I'd certainly add a voice to this. > Adam - I wouldn't say that a lot of shops have enough Linux > depth to do it > on their own, especially when you get into the issues of running under > z/VM and 24x7x366 support. I think it's more a cultural issue than a VM/390/Linux and 7x24 issue. It's also a net new customer vs traditional IBM customer issue, too. Most Unix or Linux-oriented shops approaching the problem tend to follow Adam's model; it's just another platform, you do your own Linux support and contract for the new 390 elements that they haven't encountered before. They have Linux skills; the 390 stuff is what's foreign to them, and they don't see the value of buying support for something they already know how to do, particularly if that support costs about 100 times the price of a media-only kit. The more traditional 390 customer would be more likely to buy support first and then approach the new Linux issues. I think the issues with supporting VM are well-understood. Buying a support contract from a Linux vendor doesn't address those issues in most cases -- after all, you're buying Linux support, not VM support from them, and most of the Linux vendors know less about VM than the people on this list, or they have contracted out for VM-specific expertise, in which case skipping the middleman is often more cost-effective. If the issue is 24x7 support, then IMHO, all bets are off. Most of the Linux vendors claim 24x7, but when push comes to shove, it's somewhat less than you would expect if you're accustomed to how IBM supports VM or OS/390. The infrastructure isn't there to do it, and it's going to take them a while to get there. IBM Global Services is partway there, but even with their infrastructure advantages, they just don't have the manpower yet to deliver VM-style support for Linux. That's one of the advantages of not having to buy your support from the vendor and using someone like Sytek or Sine Nomine -- you get the combination of the two systems at a competitive price, and you're not locked into the vendor's way of doing things. -- db -- db
