will lack of corporate support kill off Linux?

[Jim Herrmann]

Mike Coleman wrote:

> "Jonathan Hutchins" <hutchins at opus1.com> writes:
> > People have been predicting that the mainframe was doomed since the first
> > mini-computer came out
>
> Guess they should have defined 'doomed'.  :-)
>

If you follow anything about our culture to it's logical conclusion, everything
is doomed.  Life on this planet is doomed.  It's just a matter of when.  I
suspect mainframes will still be in service, albeit looking nothing like they do
today, when I am ready to retire 25 to 30 years from now.  Many of them will
probably be running Linux.  ;-)  (Kernal version 16.4)

>
> On the one hand, new mainframe shipments are probably really anemic on a
> volume basis, and there's probably a vanishingly small number of people in the
> world who actually have mastery of this platform.
>

Don't know about the actual hardware, but I do know that the number of licenses
for DB2/390 have increased at a very steady and respectable pace over the last
decade. Nothing like the growth of Linux, or even NT servers, mind you, but
that's comparing apples and oranges.  One mainframe can handle the load of 10,000
PC based servers.  I agree about the vanishing people to support them, however.
Of course, while the supply of competent mainframe support people dwindles, the
demand is steady or increasing which drives the price of this special labor in
the direction that I like to see.  :-)