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No, but she is professional hypnotherapist.

You can strip the Linux kernel down so far it will run on nearly anything, but at some point you have to ask yourself something: Is it still Linux, or is it another OS that shares a little interoperability with Linux?

This question is not as pedantic as it may first seem. Linux, as well as all other UNIX-based OSes, are pre-emptive multitasking OSes with the ability to protect memory and have seperate processes. The kernel itself is built around those assumptions. That requires a certain level of hardware sophistication: An 8086, for example, cannot handle seperate processes or memory protection. There is a port of Linux to the 8086, but the OS is crippled: The kernel itself has been reduced to what the hardware can support. That is, singletasking with no possible way to protect memory. A misbehaved or malicious program (or user) could invade the OS's personal space, as it were, and completely overwrite it, a problem common with DOSes and DOS-based OSes to this day but impossible in a true UNIX-like OS.

Is it Linux? I would be inclined to say no. It might look like Linux to the casual user, it might even run most Linux programs, but at a very fundamental level, it isn't Linux.

Moral of the story? Good OSes need good hardware, and good hardware hasn't always existed. It didn't exist when the IMSAI was developed, so the IMSAI can't run Linux. It could probably run an OS that calls itself Linux but lacks fundamental things due to hardware limitations. Sorry.

My Source: They're running into these very issues trying to port Linux to the IBM AS/400.

About a year ago it was announced on the Linux for AS/400 web page that "OS/400 V5R1 will support the first version of Linux for AS/400's." I haven't heard much since then, and there doesn't seem to be much information about Linux on AS/400s on the IBM web page. Can you comment about if, and how, porting of Linux to AS/400 machines is developing? Thanks.

Actually, the AS/400 uses some rather funky proprietary shit -- namely the processors. There is a Linux on the AS/400 project that I've been watching for a while now, but it doesn't seem to be moving very fucking fast. Apparently, IBM is not too overfuckingjoyed at the idea. Which is a bit odd, considering they're rushing like gangbusters to get Linux on their high-dollar shit, like the 390s, and throwing money to universities ($20,000+ of grant money where I work) if they can fit the words "IBM" and "Linux" onto a grant application. Hell of a deal, but odd duality -- in the Jungian sense.

Actually, the AS/400 uses some rather funky proprietary shit -- namely the processors. There is a Linux on the AS/400 project that I've been watching for a while now, but it doesn't seem to be moving very fucking fast. Apparently, IBM is not too overfuckingjoyed at the idea. Which is a bit odd, considering they're rushing like gangbusters to get Linux on their high-dollar shit, like the 390s, and throwing money to universities ($20,000+ of grant money where I work) if they can fit the words "IBM" and "Linux" onto a grant application. Hell of a deal, but odd duality -- in the Jungian sense.

I work at the Pizza Hut call centre and we use the AS/400 there for taking down customer orders. The machines are quite basic but they get the job done and from my experience the machines are reliable as we haven't had a major crash in the 8 months or I have been working there. If you are after general information on the system you can consult this link.

Having read these, and being a long term AS/400er, I don't believe we will see a Linux port to AS/400 for some time; if indeed at all.

I thought this wasn't quite available yet, owing to some pretty bizarre architectural intricacies of the AS/400 platform. (The single address space issue for one).

This Linux on AS/400 site has a wealth of information, as well as some comment from IBM.

Cheers, Mark
--
"I am not a nut-bag." -- Millroy the Magician

This would be damned unlikely. Not impossible, but orders of magnitude harder than porting it to most architectures.

See this link: comments from IBM employees to the "Linux on AS/400" project.

And, of course, the project page itself.

Good luck. Personally, I think the effort would be better spent trying to write an application emulation layer, instead of porting the whole OS, but it's no skin off my nose since I won't be on either project. :-)

This would be damned unlikely. Not impossible, but orders of magnitude harder than porting it to most architectures.

See this link: comments from IBM employees to the "Linux on AS/400" project.

And, of course, the project page itself.

Good luck. Personally, I think the effort would be better spent trying to write an application emulation layer, instead of porting the whole OS, but it's no skin off my nose since I won't be on either project. :-)

This has been done on the IBM ESA/390. See the Linux on the IBM ESA/390 Mainframe Architecture project. Unfortunatly it's still in devlopment. So no banks will be using it. :-)

And there is a project looking at the possibility of a AS/400 port. It's not even in development though.