[Info-vax] CentOS has been effectively killed for production use

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 12/9/20 7:41 PM, David Wade wrote:
> On 09/12/2020 18:13, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 12/9/20 11:14 AM, David Wade wrote:
>>> On 09/12/2020 14:33, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> On 12/9/2020 8:34 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>>> IBM (who now own Red Hat) has just effectively killed CentOS for
>>>>> production use by turning it into an unstable rolling distribution:
>>>>>
>>>>> https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/09/centos_red_hat/
>>>>>
>>>>> Fortunately, at least in the Unix/Linux world, there are always
>>>>> other options.
>>>>
>>>> Supposedly there are about 1000 Linux distros.
>>>>
>>>> Arne
>>>>
>>> But if you want something that runs on IBMs "Z" hardware there are 
>>> not so many and CENTOS was one of the cheaper ways of doing it.
>>>
>> What, exactly, would be the advantage of running Linux on "Z" hardware?
>> "Z" hardware's advantage is that it can run an IBM OS something that I
>> don't believe can be run on any other hardware platform.  While Linux
>> can be run on damn near everything.
>>
>> bill
> 
> Bill,
> 
> IBM mainframes are big. If you need one to run zOS (formerly MVS) or zVM 
> (formerly VM/ESA, VM/XA etc) then they sell you a box that is over 
> sized, but even so you only get to use part of it. 

Name one system seller that doesn't sell over sized boxes.  :-)

>                                                   You pay with the soul 
> of your first born, or some other outrageous fee, but IBM know that you 
> have a pile of CICS code written in Assembler or Cobol and no one who 
> understands the business logic so you are pretty much stuck with a 
> mainframe.

CICS is problematic, but I have never had a problem moving COBOL from
an IBM environment to another environment.

> 
> You are probably using it to run a big bank, airline reservation system 
> or Air Traffic control. Moving from these hits into those risk analysis 
> holes you mentioned before.

Or credit card handling.  Or Government Payroll.  Or an EMR system.
Or parts inventory.  Or dozens of other businesses that still use
IBM Mainframes.

> 
> However now you have the big animal IBM will let you use the spare 
> capacity to run Linux. They charge much less for this capacity. Its 
> called "Integrated Facility for Linux"
> 
> https://www.ibm.com/uk-en/products/integrated-facility-for-linux

Interesting.

> 
> Appart from being marked as IFLs the Linux dedicated CPUs are no 
> different from normal z CPUs, well except IBM charge much less for them,
> 
> This strategy stops people from switching to another platform and 
> discovering that if you take care it will run as reliably as "z".
> 
> Its good old fashioned lock-in but the Mainframe market is small enough 
> that the "anti trust" brigade won't interfere....
> 
> https://www.theregister.com/2011/08/03/ibm_eu_mainframe_complaints_dropped/
> 
> I hope this explains why users run Linux on Z.
> 

OK.  But I assume you have to get your Linux from IBM so I doubt the
CENTOS debacle will have any effect on them.

bill