IBM Will Include Red Hat On All Mainframes

John E. Cosgrove writes "I read in this article that IBM signed a deal with Red Hat to include RedHat linux on all of their mainframe servers. It's a little short, but worth the look."

Comments

On Big Blue's Coatails a Red Hat and Tux

[ackthpt]

This announcement, by a company like IBM which still commands respect, gives not only Red Hat, but Linux a huge boost in credibility.

Last week, IBM said it will overhaul its entire line of servers and mainframes under the brand name eServer to meet the rising demands of the Internet.

That Red Hat has performed so well, as to be accomodated as an option on the entire line of servers, by IBM no less, is a statement that Linux has arrived.


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Chief Frog Inspector

Include RH 7.0 ?

[oldzoot]

I wonder if IBM will use RH 7.0 as their release version? That would be great for creating positive first impressions of Linux for corporate types !

Last week Big Blue announced this

[WillSeattle]

Last week, IBM said it will overhaul its entire line of servers and mainframes under the brand name eServer

Note the key phrase last week. I have no idea why, but a number of us submitted the news item last week on slashdot and it got rejected.

Guess it's not news until it's stale: right?

Oh, news flash, Al Gore will debate George Whats-My-Sign Bush last week.

And in further news, Slobodan Milosevic is certain that he can stay in power. Oh, wait, he's been overthrown already.

Never mind.

Re:Are you sure they'll be running Linux by defaul

[finkployd]

Oh please, it'll be an option.

Do you really think they are going to give up the most reliable OS in history?

Windows uptime measures in days
Linux uptime measures in years
MVS uptime measures in decades

:)

Finkployd

Re:True, and also....

[darthpenguin]

Although I personally think that Slackware is a superior distro to RedHat, you have to look at it from the corporate point of view. When I first decided to try linux, I went to a local computer store where they had a bunch of those "budget" CDs, and looked over the options for linux. The two main ones were Redhat and Slackware. I, being unexperienced with linux at the time, chose redhat, because I simply liked the name better! CEO's wouldn't like to run a business dependent on something called "Slackware". Plus, the corporate support that Redhat offers probably is another plus in using them, but on purely technical merits, I think that slackware would be the best choice.

Of course, others would like to debate that with me...


-MSD.dyndns.org
"Sucks to your ass-mar"

Yes, Actually

[Greyfox]

While I was working at IBM, mainframe dude got Linux booting on it. Then he compiled bochs and successfully booted Windows 95 on that. So yes, if you use Linux on your mainframe, you can also boot Windows on it.

Presumably he could have then installed Lotus Notes and brought IBM full circle, since they first started using Notes to get away from the mainframes.

Re:More RH Branding

[Overnight Delivery]

I take it that you've never worked for a company that failed to create brand recognition.

I work for one now and let me tell you it sucks!

You work your guts out to see competitors with inferior products kill you in the market, you tell people what industry you work in and they say "oh, I didn't know company X did that", but most of all it sends moral to the shit and good people leave.

I'm glad Redhat understands the need for branding, if nothing else it means the distro I'm using now IS going to be around in 5 years (and despite the opinion on /. it is a fine distro).

Having the the technical goods is the start of the process, not the end.

Cheers

Big Iron

[jjr]

This will allow mainframe users to create different services on thier servers without tring to port it that platform. Also it would cutback on amount of resources needed to maintian it.

More RH Branding

[Zalgon 26 McGee]

Once again, Red Hat is successfully creating brand recognition - it's not Linux that IBM is selling, it's Red Hat Linux.

It's appropriate that this is with IBM - another company that got big on selling its name, regardless of whether they provided any compelling technical advantage over their competitors.

IBM WILL NOT "Include Red Hat On All Mainframes"

[pnatural]

read the frickin article. it says "will offer" not "will include".

debunk a /. myth

[Barbarian]

See this kuro5hin thread.

Specifically:

A quick check on RedHats Bugzilla the day of the Slashdot post revealed something on the order of 120 bugs relating to RH7 directly. Most were low severity. Even today checking RedHat 7 with all packages only yeilds 269 bugs total (no enhancement or translation requests).
The 2500 bugs quoted in /. was including all apps, all versions, and included feature enhancement requests etc. Basically whoever did the search on Bugzilla didn't know how the search form worked and didn't bother to figure it out. (Giving the benefit of the doubt that they were not being malicious.)

The posting up there is relevant (if mis-sectioned maybe even belonging on scoop) because this whole episode shows that these community news/discussion sites have some pull in real world news and events. The story there did some real damage to Red Hat (at least PR wise) and it's basis was in inaccurate data that could have been easily checked (took me 2 minutes) If it had been checked at all (by the original poster or by the reviewer) it would have been prevented. It is something that must be considered when designing site review and submission issues as well as the whole culture bit. I think in this case slash should help Red Hat cover the PR damage done either via a story, interview or retraction.


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