CompuServe Messages

Marc, It's been so long (over 20 years) since I did anything with an IBM mainframe–that I couldn't make a comparison; however, folks who are familiar with both, say that doing something under UNIX such as hardware modifications, software additions, etc. is a breeze compared to doing the same thing with an IBM. Again, I can't compare the user interface, but while UNIX and it's various shells may be cryptic to some, to users in general–they never see the shell or the UNIX prompt, but merely run application programs that are auto-started via logon scripts and menu's. From a programmer's point of view (again from folks who know both systems) UNIX is also much easier to develop under. From my point of view, I'd have to agree that writing programs under UNIX is not at all difficult. Most businesses that have huge amounts of time and money invested in IBM equipment will more than likely stay with IBM for cost considerations alone; however, where I work (Denver Police) we are pulling everything OFF of the IBM mainframes and moving it onto AT&T 3B2's (400's and 600's) and once done, will show a savings of over 2 million dollars a year. The savings alone is paying for the new equipment and development costs. It is going to take a year or 2 to get everything thru both the initial developement cycle and the 2nd pass, but even the first pass stuff is far more flexible from our standpoint…and much easier to change based on user requests. Obviously some folks would disagree with this for one reason or another, but the folks who made the decision to convert our system came to the conclusion that we'd be crazy not to do it. Don