IBM and Red Hat Sign Major Support Agreement

gnudot writes: "Red Hat announced this morning that they have entered into an agreement with IBM to provide support services for the entire eServer product line. This includes zSeries, iSeries pSeries in addition to the xSeries (What no qSeries? or 7Series?) which is already supported. Here is the story on Yahoo."

IBM Marketspeak conversion

[MythosTraecer]

For those of us still not comfortable with IBM's new eServer marketspeak, here's a simple conversion chart:

eServer Name == Real Name
iSeries == AS/400
pSeries == RS/6000
xSeries == Netfinity/PC server
zSeries == System/390 mainframe

Re:not just support and services

[MythosTraecer]

A couple of years ago, there were 250,000 AS/400s in service. That market isn't growing, but it's probably not contracting, since those customers are a hidebound bunch. I seem to remember that average AS/400/iSeries customers spend $100,000 or more on their machines.

I have no actual sales numbers on System 390/zSeries servers, but I seem to remember most customers spending at least $1 million for each of those.

Between the iSeries and zSeries customers, we're talking about customers who have enough cash to pay extra for support and services. And I know these customers most often pony up extra for IBM support services anyway, so it probably won't be such a big deal for RedHat to get a nice piece of that pie.

Re:sidenote...

[nazgul]

Red Hat's CFO was on CNBC this afternoon discussing the deal. He advised that the company is expecting strong growth for this quarter and re-iterated Red Hat's offer of providing software for every school in America if Microsoft would change it's settlement and provide all the hardware. Red Hat would also provide support and upgrades forever.

Re:What about the other distros?

[DJFelix]

A dude from IBM just e-mailed me and told me that they would still support the system running Debian, but that they just couldn't help me if I had trouble configuring/maintaining it.

That'll work for me.

The main reasons for me behind purchasing an IBM server is their support and service. And their unflinching support of Linux!

Re:What about priorities and RT apps?

[Sharkeys-Day]

I have worked with various IBM system off and on, including the System/390 and RS/6000, but not AS/400.

RS/6000 is a Unix system basically. Probably still with more high-end features than Linux, but when building really big Unix systems, my company used HP or DG instead.

System/390's have several different operating system choices [ibm.com]. My experience was an unpleasant one with the oldest and cruftiest option (VSE), but I'll try not be too disparaging.

My opinion is that they seem faster because they don't do as much. If they seem better at prioritizing, you should consider that they don't have the usual Unix load to deal with (e.g. 20-odd daemons, local and remote X-sessions, command-line users, and a couple big applications). The 3090 terminal does updates a screen at a time, not character-by-character. That's similar to a text-only 24x80 browser which doesn't have to build and tear down the http connection each request. If you just want to put some accounting app on it, fine. You won't have any downtime, because that is the only thing running on the system.

The little I've read about AS/400 suggests that it's an innovative system, but operates with the mainframe mentality.

Re:sidenote...

[The 42 Maniac]

I'm not that sure.

According to the IBM website IBM has 4 strategic Linux partners (Caldera, Red Hat, SuSE and Turbo Linux). Furthermore, I could find nothing in the news article (basically a Red Hat press statement) that this is an exclusive deal. Thus IBM is free to negotiate comparable deals with other strategic partners.