> "The META report says that mainframe configurations of Linux will fall out > of favor as soon as 2005, by which time Unix and Intel-based Windows and > Linux solutions will have enough mainframe-like features without the > mainframe-like costs to make those options the better choice. In a scathing > review of Linux's ability to support mission-critical applications, the > report cautions that 'current Linux incarnations are relatively immature, as > evidenced by the interminable list of errors/patches on Linux providers' Web > sites. They have, therefore, been naturally limited to simple, less-critical > applications such as LL Bean's e-mail notification system...'"
Historically Meta have always been very anti Linux and I think the last comments actually show bias over research - the financial trading applications running on Linux are a tiny bit more critical than LL Bean's email. The other question is much more interesting. Is there enough pent up demand for then triple redundancy and all the other fault tolerance in the mainframe world to create a mass market for it. Such a mass market would be massively cheaper than the current mainframe and at the lower price a much bigger market. If it exists then I suspect its more a case of "the mainframe is dead, long live the mainframe". S/390 may well become an emulation on power4 and/or x86, but if it does so because it carried over the technology into a new more public form that can only be good for everyone who isnt directly dependant on pure S/390 revenue
