Re: I'm about to give up on "System i"

[James Lampert <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Elvis Budimlic wrote:
> To add to all this, I just read Frank Soltis' article that states in no
> uncertain terms, from computer science perspective name of the operating
> system is SLIC (System Licensed Internal Code) and i5/OS is really other
> software (database, work management etc.) that comes with it.
>
> System i is hardware only.

Assuming you understood and paraphrased the article correctly, it only 
goes to prove that even Soltis is capable of uttering pure, 
unadulterated bovine scat.

SLIC is little more than a BIOS and an abstraction layer.

The one thing that sets the AS/400 and its progeny apart from other 
computers is that it is the purest example to be found of a VIRTUAL 
MACHINE that is TOTALLY ABSTRACTED from the hardware. That's why 
programs written for, and compiled on, a D02, with its CISC component 
CPU, will automagically port themselves to a modern PowerPC-based box, 
and (within limits) even do so in the opposite direction.

"hardware only" my <equus asinius>! You plug a different SLIC into a 
typical "System i," and it becomes a completely different box, running a 
completely different operating system.

(And continuously-auto-correcting spell-checkers are EVIL! I remember an 
interoffice memo about a proposed company trip to Catalina Island, with 
a line mentioning the fact that we could rent "mop-heads" while there.)