>> I'd be a lot happier if SuSE reinstated the media kits w/o
support -- I like
>> their distribution, and I generally like their approach, but I
don't see a
>> good reason to pay for something I'm not going to use. I'm told
that media
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> If you are not going to use it anyway, why you _need_ Linux on a
mainframe? If
you just want to play with Linux, there is just the same Linux on a
much
cheaper platform, e.g. ia32.
Politics. It can be very hard to get permission to spend even $500 in
a large organisation. No amount of trialing on a toy computer will
tell you anything about the issues (such as operations automation,
administration of thousands of users) that are current in large
organisations.
> Everybody who has a very good reason to run Linux on a mainframe can
talk to SuSE.
Every ISV says the same. IT managers don't have the time to conduct
protracted negotiations with software vendors - some organisations
have as many as fifty and one visit a month from each would burn up
one person's time completely.
SuSE has, in my opinion, made what I refer to as "the Jim Lennane
mistake".
There are, fortunately, other distributions.
--
Phil Payne
The Devil's IT Dictionary - last updated 2002/01/20:
http://www.isham-research.com/dd.html
UK +44 7785 302803
Germany +49 173 6242039
