Hello Jerry,
Am 20.08.2022 um 06:52 schrieb jerry ven <jerryven95@xxxxxxxxx>:
What is the difference between AS/400 and any normal web server in terms of size, physical space, capacity ,performance, user friendliness etc.?
This is a broad and very generic question. Thus, there are (too) many answers to it. Also, what is a "normal web server"? Please elaborate.
What do you mean with "size", or physical space? Physical appearance? Data "holding capacity"? Many answers are to be found on the IBM website. I suggest to look out there yourself, vs. vendors of stock PC servers.
Capacity means what? Processing power? Or again, data holding capacity? Today, I'd say, they're similar.
And what do you mean by "user friendliness"? A web server is something to be administered by someone skilled, not by an ordinary user. A user to me is the one who *uses* the application served by the the server, thus the question is moot. Additionally, *what* is to be served? A custom application? Or just something readymade from the internet community?
You see, your blurry question rises many more question than answers.
Some people may more or less politely yell at you that it's no longer "AS/400".
But to not leave you alone completely, some "soft facts", from my experience…
I've tinkered with Computers since my late teens in 1988, started tinkering with Linux in 1995, and inherited my first AS/400 (yes, it was one) in 2007. This is my experience, with a bias towards your "web server" request:
IBM i on Power Hardware appears fundamentally different to a potential sysadmin, compared to almost any other OS admins usually know about. Many concepts to programmers and admins of common systems are so very fundamentally different, it's re-learning time. Certain "slang" makes it harder to understand concepts and procedures to things you already know by different names. Also, it has a rightful reputation about being incredibly reliable. But then, branded Wintel-Hardware also increased reliability in the last decade(s), while Linux has become also very stable. Can't offer Windows advice, not my area of expertise.
AS/400 started not as a command-line but as a screen-at-a-time platform (with a optional-to-use command line, also). It inherited some concepts of the IBM mainframes of the days. In the 1990's, when the internet boom took off, IBM tried hard to "de-dust" the OS by providing more or less viable point'n click alternatives to administering the system, quite akin to Linux: Some programmers also tried to come up with GUI admin tools for Linux. From my personal point of view, you can never match the flexibility of a command line with a GUI. But sometimes, this might not be necessary; e. g. if only basic tasks are to be done infrequently. On both platforms.
IBM i (the OS) has a "specialized" run-time environment called PASE. In the early days of its existence, it was meant as a way to run unchanged AIX binaries. Over time, IBM implemented ways to easily implement popular OpenSource software into this environment. Challenges arise when both environments need to be considered by an application programmer.
The IBM i community (in here) is very professional. Since the platform is heavily used in mid- to large companies, monetary issues are less an issue compared to (very) small companies. Availability and disaster prevention issues vs. price to achieve those goals appear to me to be very different compared to small companies, where shirt-sleeved approaches are more common. Most often for monetary reasons, but not necessarily limited to.
There's an awful lot forums and other internet sources for getting help with Linux as a server OS running the usual LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), and how to develop your individual application, or get something ready-made to run. On the other hand, there are also more clueless noobs poking around until it works, drawing wrong conclusions, though. In general, OSS is most often developed on Linux and thus fits into the UNIX environment. It's harder to find information about how to get some arbitrary OSS software to run smoothly in PASE.
IBM i is a much more interesting and fascinating platform, but this is a factor which matters to me as a hobbyist. And is not necessarily something to be considered by a professional requiring to choose a "web server".
HTH.
:wq! PoC
midrange.com
