Probably the biggest cost involved in running a mainframe is software licensing. For a large company, this can run into $millions per annum. Running Free software could well make such a system extremely affordable. Many companies are moving systems off mainframes to NT, *nix, as/400. Suddenly they have dozens of systems to backup and maintain - requiring a lot more staff, often on high salaries. The space taken by a dozen or so NT servers is far from cheap. The I/O capabilities of mainframes are awesome - if you deliver a lot of content rather than crunch a lot of numbers, I would say this could be a winner. If you are moving systems off the mainframe (buying *nix based packages is often the reason), the will be plenty of spare capacity to run a linux lpar or two. It could also save you buying new hardware! Old mainframes (at least until now) are not highly sought after and often end up as 'boat anchors'. Not the sort of thing you want at home, but for business, they could be the perfect solution.
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"and that will at least consider not just rolling over at the first subpoena (if not before). "
What exactly do you need it for?
The difference is that anyone (skilled enough) can fix linux problems. Only Microsoft can fix MS problems - if/when they get around to it.
Besides, bashing M$ is fun. Bashing the under-dog would be seen as cruel!
Probably the biggest cost involved in running a mainframe is software licensing. For a large company, this can run into $millions per annum. Running Free software could well make such a system extremely affordable. Many companies are moving systems off mainframes to NT, *nix, as/400. Suddenly they have dozens of systems to backup and maintain - requiring a lot more staff, often on high salaries. The space taken by a dozen or so NT servers is far from cheap. The I/O capabilities of mainframes are awesome - if you deliver a lot of content rather than crunch a lot of numbers, I would say this could be a winner. If you are moving systems off the mainframe (buying *nix based packages is often the reason), the will be plenty of spare capacity to run a linux lpar or two. It could also save you buying new hardware! Old mainframes (at least until now) are not highly sought after and often end up as 'boat anchors'. Not the sort of thing you want at home, but for business, they could be the perfect solution.