Re: architectural goals, Byte Addressability And Beyond

John Savard <quadibloc@servername.invalid> schrieb:

On Fri, 31 May 2024 19:44:49 -0000 (UTC), John Levine
<johnl@taugh.com> wrote:
>

I have to say I'm somewhat surprised that IBM has put a lot of effort
into running linux on zSeries, since that's about as un-captive as you
can get.

>
You can buy a zSeries machine more cheaply if it can only run Linux,
but not any IBM operating systems. So this is presumably for the
purpose of expanding the popularity of the z/Architecture without in
any way threatening the profitability of their base market.

One of the main selling points is the hardware reliability, and
you get this with Linux, too.  Plus, you can always run zOS in
parallel with Linux, either in LPAR mode or as a guest under VM
(or under KVM, if you're so inclined).

Software availability is probably the main driver.  Even SAP made
SAP HANA Linux-only, and they have announced that other systems
will be dropped, so IBM is probably very glad they did that Linux port.

From what I heard, it actually started out as some people trying
out a port of Linux as an unofficial hobby project, and finding
it surprisingly easy.

If they took it to its logical conclusion, and packaged zArchitecture
chips without the ability to run current IBM operating systems in the
same way as POWER chips, I might actually be interested.

Would you like to buy one, then?  That would be a large investment
of money and space in your home...  but then again, an 18-year old
once bought a z890, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45X4VP8CGtk