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Posted by: Bob Cozzi
Rogue Programmer
Cozzi Productions, Inc.
Chicagoland
Is it a myth or marketing babel if...
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Published: 29 Oct 2011
Revised: 23 Jan 2013 - 3895 days ago
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Is it a myth or marketing babel if... Published by: Bob Cozzi on 29 Oct 2011 view comments(3)

Is it a myth when a website reportedly is "Powered by IBM i" but runs on Linux on IBM POWER systems hardware? After all IBM i is the operating system and if you're not "running on the IBM i operating system" and you say "Powered by IBM i" you're not being truthful, are you.

Here at MidrangeNews.com we are 100% RPG IV with embedded SQL behind this site. The only "java" we use is for SendMail which also runs under/on IBM i. No Linux in our infrastructure.

If you're running Linux on POWER systems and saying "Powered by IBM i" you're trying to fool somebody--or perhaps you're just not a clever as you believe you are.

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Comment on: Is it a myth or marketing babel if...
Posted: 11 years 10 months 1 days 17 hours 17 minutes ago

First, how much of your server farm needs to be running on i for the "Powered by IBM i" to be legitimate? The whole stack? Just the database tier?

Second, does any user really need to know what O/S software is running on any server stack? Heck, there may be a good reason to have a different O/S on every tier, but the users really don't have a need to know. Past the firewall, I don't think any details of the server environment need to be made public.

Posted by: bobcozzi
Site Admin ****
Chicagoland
Comment on: Is it a myth or marketing babel if...
Posted: 11 years 10 months 1 days 16 hours 15 minutes ago

Hans, perhaps, but I'm looking at it from the "Made in the U.S.A." mentality, or the "eat your own dog food" or "use what you make, make what you use".

If you're promoting "i" and running on Windows or Linux, doesn't that mean you're too lazy to put the effort in to make "i" do what you want? And if so, aren't you really promoting Linux or Windows at the end of the day?

Now I do remember that the Cray II was designed on a Mac and the new Mac was designed on a Cray II but that's one moment in time.

Posted by:
Comment on: Is it a myth or marketing babel if...
Posted: 11 years 9 months 5 days 12 hours 17 minutes ago

Bob: Is the i still premium-priced relative to other systems? If so, then it really makes no sense to use i for all of the tiers in your server farm. i may make sense for the database tier since that's where you need your data integrity. But on the other end, for example, static content can be served up by a pair of cheap Intel servers running OpenBSD and provide rock-solid security for your web site, as well as 100% uptime.

Sure, it may be noble to want to use i everywhere. But in practice, savvy IT departments are going to go with what's most appropriate for each tier. Frankly, I'd be a bit leery of any vendor that wants to push premium-priced components where more inexpensive alternatives exist.