UniSys are still running switch-to-MS ads...
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| AnonymousCoward Mar 16, 2005 5:20 PM EDT |
...for their big iron on some sites. White man still serve with forked webserver? |
| PaulFerris Mar 17, 2005 2:51 AM EDT |
AC: Their clue-meter probably got the needle jammed in a negative zone. But this is Linux -- leave the forking to us! |
| Tsela Mar 17, 2005 5:16 AM EDT |
Unisys has a very strange message: on the mainframe side they are very open source friendly (I know that, being a LINC programmer. We have the source of everything that runs on the mainframe and have our our team to support it, although we sometimes turn to Unisys for some problems), but on the client and developer side they are completely sold to Microsoft. But Unisys strikes me as a practical (if sometimes shifty) company. If there is demand, they provide. So if there is demand for Linux, they will provide what is asked. At least I have a new argument to counter the current transition from the mainframe to .NET that our company is currently doing (and which is not going that well, as I could have told them before they began. Unfortunately I started working there only last February, and they've been busy with working on .NET for nearly a year already), especially since more and more voices are heard here against abandoning the mainframe, the more the .NET team advances :) . Paul, I agree with your comment. I have to fight the same attitude here (luckily I'm not alone :) ). Good that our company isn't distributing software (we have a big IT department, but that's only for our homegrown software :) ). |
| phubert Mar 17, 2005 6:13 AM EDT |
I don't know how the corporate culture sorted out after the merger, but I do know the Burroughs side was a bit horrified at the $100mil liabilities on the UNIVAC side due to such things as bribing government and Navy employees... The UNIVAC sales staff had technical excellence on their side (except when it came to behind-the-curve peripherals). but faced a ruthless. powerful, and aggressive IBM salesforce. Since Burroughs had its base in banking, perhaps it had fewer pressures of that sort??? Oddly, IBM alternatives came out about 50/50 in competitive bidding situatiions (mandated in government), but about 10/90 otherwise. Of course what I like most about this sort of article is the evidence and effect of customer demand for Linux!! ** as to the source, I especially like to cite news articles from sources that haven't any pro-Linux or pro-OSS bias. That makes them much more credible to the wider audience. It's really great, however, to hear from an actual UNISYS customer!!! Wow! First-hand reports! The state of CA has ONE UNISYS site: its DOJ. Unfortunately, I have no contacts there. |
| Tsela Mar 17, 2005 11:58 AM EDT |
Hehe, well, I don't know the story about why the company I work for became a Unisys client, but I know it began long ago (some of my colleagues began their IT career here in the 70's! I guess it wasn't even Unisys yet when they bought the mainframe ;) ). Anyway, programming in LINC is like doing time travel: LINC is a database language which compiles in COBOL and ALGOL, and has definitely the looks of COBOL (with strange quirks like using DO.WHEN; instead of IF...). But it being my very first IT job, and I not having actually studied IT, it's a great school :) . And it pays well :) . And AFAIK, there are only TWO clients of Unisys here in the Netherlands: the company I work for, and another company which originally worked in collaboration with us for the software, and only began to go its own way a few years ago :) . |
| phubert Mar 18, 2005 4:40 AM EDT |
LINC is on the Burroughs side of the UNISYS house ... I'm trying to recall what the Sperry/UNIVAC 4GL was called .. tho I believe it, too, is still in use. The UNIVAC language has been used as a screen-scraper for mainframe automation and mainframe-to-client-server 'conversions.' I started with the state in IT in 1970, BTW... on RCA Spectra 70's ... real memory, IBM-equivalent Assembly language. Lufthansa was once (still?) a big Sperry/UNIVAC mainframe client. UNIVAC rewrote OS/1100 in C in the early 80's .. rather forward-thinking of them for the time. When it seems the techs win out, the suits always seem to come along to spoil it... |
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