Re:The IBM mainframe: How it runs and why it survives
by hinkley on Monday July 24, 2023 @09:50PM
(#36856856)
You're old enough to have noticed that we cycle between client-server and peer-peer about every decade. Sometimes it's hardware, sometimes it's software.
The pendulum swings, and never seems to stop.
Re:The IBM mainframe: How it runs and why it survives
by Merrill on Monday July 24, 2023 @11:09PM
(#36857375)
Had the US government not forced IBM to get out of the centralized provision of computing by consent agreements and eventual divestiture, and had the US government not forbidden the Bell System to enter the centralized computing business by the FCCs Computer Inquiry 2, its likely that computing and networking would have evolved in a more rational way that did not include personal computing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Bureau_Corporation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Computer_Inquiry
It takes time and wastes effort, but technology eventually bests politicians.
Why pay for disk and compute access when you can have a workstation! Why have limited access to the system when you can have your own! Was the vibe.
It is amusing/sad that in the AWS world we're right back to basically mainframes. Centrally hosted massive compute that you don't really have full control or access and have to pay for use time.
I wonder when the next swing back to personal computing arrives?