will lack of corporate support kill off Linux?

[Jonathan Hutchins]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Densmore" <DensmoreB at ctbsonline.com>

> > mainframe is NOT dead.
> Not dead just being replaced by cheaper hardware. I predict many Linux
> clusters replacing many of the remaining mainframes.

There are a lot of differences between mainframes and PC based servers that
simply don't translate.  Clusters provide processing power, but they don't
have the IO channels or the storage capacity that a mainframe does.

Linux clusters won't replace mainframes any more than AS400's did (a very
loud prediction several years ago).  People have been predicting that the
mainframe was doomed since the first mini-computer came out (would that be a
DEC PDP 10? (I can never remember whether the 10 or the 11 was the mini or
the mainframe)).

Clusters are probably going to kill off most of the dedicated supercomputer
designs, simply because they have a time-to-market that's so much faster -
by the time a supercomputer is installed and running it's slower than a
cluster at the same price point.

So, sadly, you probably won't see any more Crays, but you will still see Big
Blue, Tandem, and some Compaq DEC's. for many years to come.