IBM to sell Linux-only mainframe

[Warren Togami]

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-822771.html

"A new Linux-only mainframe model that IBM will announce Friday is the
strongest indication so far of the company's enthusiasm for uniting the
comparatively new operating system with the decades-old business computer
line. The refrigerator-sized machine running only Linux will be formally
announced at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo show in New York next week
and will begin shipping by the end of March, said Pete McCaffrey, director
of IBM's zSeries mainframe group.  IBM hopes to lure new customers to the
mainframe line with the system because it costs less than a full-fledged
mainframe and doesn't require the usual high level of mainframe management
skills, he said."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/23820.html

"According to Peter McCaffrey, director of zSeries product marketing at IBM,
the new machines are based on feedback and market success that IBM has had
last year in promoting the mainframe as a platform on which enterprise
customers can consolidate their Unix, Linux, and Windows workloads.
"Customers have really embraced Linux on the mainframe to help drive down
costs." The new Raptor server, which will reportedly have from one to four
of a tweaked version of IBM's G7 mainframe processors, will debut initially
as a Linux solution; after the machine is shipping sometime around the
middle of March, IBM will announce Raptor servers that will support its z/OS
operating system (and maybe others). But these machines will only officially
run Linux and will not be enabled to run other operating systems."