The Eternal Mainframe (2013) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Eternal Mainframe (2013)

#11

Post by rbanffy » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 5:14 PM UTC

nayuki wrote: post #8

Great article reflecting on who controls computational resources - the user or the company. I want to respond to one point mentioned: > Those who continue to do significant work offline will become the exception; meaning they will be an electoral minority. With so much effort being put into web apps, they may even be seen as eccentrics; meaning there may not be much sympathy for their needs in the halls of power. Wha…

> What I find scary is that developers see web apps (and hence the open web platform) as no longer fashionable, and instead focus on developing mobile apps (iOS and Android).

Few of those apps are standalone mobile apps. More frequently than not, the mobile app is a thin layer on top of the mobile app.

Re: The Eternal Mainframe (2013)

#12

Post by rbanffy » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 5:17 PM UTC

worewood wrote: post #3

At least in my experience, when I've heard that the "mainframe is going to die", it's specifically referencing the IBM ecosystem - COBOL and friends. To me it looks like the author is grasping for straws when saying "well, a server rack is just like a mainframe, so the mainframe is not dying!". To me it's the opposite: yes, a server rack is just like a mainframe. That's why the mainframe is dying - a bunch of servers…

> a bunch of servers can do the same work much more cheaply.

If you want to think like that, you need to factor in the reliability aspect as well. The fact mainframes are still selling well indicates it's very expensive to engineer the 99.999% reliability out of a rack of 1u servers.

Re: The Eternal Mainframe (2013)

#13

Post by dapperdrake » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 6:48 PM UTC

brazzy wrote: post #7

worewood wrote: post #3

At least in my experience, when I've heard that the "mainframe is going to die", it's specifically referencing the IBM ecosystem - COBOL and friends. To me it looks like the author is grasping for straws when saying "well, a server rack is just like a mainframe, so the mainframe is not dying!". To me it's the opposite: yes, a server rack is just like a mainframe. That's why the mainframe is dying - a bunch of servers…

Did you stop reading somewhere in the middle? I cannot fathom how else you could miss the point so completely. The point is not about technological similarities at all . It's about who controls the hardware and thus ultimately has the power over its use. "The mainframe" which the author is talking about is not characterized by COBOL, but by having huge corporations control the hardware which everyone is using in thei…

Luckily you both missed the point.

You missed this one here:

"The data is most valuable when it is in the mainrack. Your Facebook data isn't nearly as useful without the ability to post to the pages of your friends. Your Google Docs files aren't as useful without the ability to collaborate with others. Dynamic state matters; it's the whole point of having computers because it allows automation and communication."

Data tables, data tables, and data tables. Data tables over flow-charts . Fred Brooks all the way down.