Hi list,
We had this session last Thursday night starting at 6:00 PM. About
35 people showed up and maybe 5 or 6 additional IBMers. While it
might have been ideal if the session had been a true community
discussion, it was more customers airing their requests to IBM.
Still, I felt is was productive and that most people were happy
with it (hey, the room was still half full at 7:15 PM).
Carlos Ordonez answered most of the questions, and thanks
to Jim Elliott, Christoph Arenz and Tim Kane, all of IBM, for
fielding other questions.
It's unfortunate that there were no representatives from the
distributors. Perhaps that will be a possibility for next year,
and perhaps a better format would be a panel session before
the dinner hour.
We got back only 11 of the questionnaires and but five had real
feedback. So it seems most who attended were just interested.
Those who are using Linux were asking tough questions. Here's
the summary of the questionnaires:
1. Are you using Linux for S/390 and zSeries?
If the answer is No then skip the rest of the survey
Yes - 4
No - 7
2. What distribution of Linux for S/390 and zSeries are you using?
2 - Marist
0 - Red Hat
2 - SuSE
0 - TurboLinux
1 - ThinkBlue (Millenux)
0 - Caiman (LinuxKorea)
0 - Other
3. What environment is Linux for S/390 and zSeries running in?
1 - IFL
0 - non-IFL LPAR
0 - full CPC
3 - VM/ESA or z/VM
0 - VIF
4. How many Linux for S/390 and zSeries servers are you running?
1 - three times
2 (with 2 more to come) - one time
5. How many are production servers?
0 - twice
1 - twice
5. Are you using Linux for S/390 and zSeries in 64-bit mode?
Yes - twice
No - twice
6. What services/applications are you running?
(please list those in production and those in test/development)
-) Web server, file and print
-) Gnu development tool chain, pre-release gcc/g++
7. Are any of your Linux for S/390 and zSeries servers accessible
from outside your company's firewall?
Yes - once
No - three times
8. Name of your company?
No input
9. If you provided the name of your company, may we include your
company name in the survey results as a user of Linux for S/390
and zSeries?
No
10. Where should the Linux for zSeries community focus?
-) Reducing the cost of the hardware; including an IFL engine
for free on the zSeries; including z/VM for free until the
system is moved into production
-) DoD certification; Posix compliance; D11COE certification;
C2 certification; ZOPE!
-) Consolidation; changing OCO OSA drivers to Open Source
Usability in *real* business; you *must* develop a technically
*complete* (backup, porting, services) and business value
approach to drive interest with the UNIX/NT contingent in
the Fortune 100
-) Linux on zSeries does not have the look and feel of "Plain Linux"
-Mike MacIsaac, IBM [EMAIL PROTECTED] (845) 433-7061
