Boris after Greg,

> I can see how the AS/400 is proprietary, but am not sure why
> the HP 3000 isn't.  Could you please explain your definition
> of proprietary and open?

The HP3000's native operating system is MPE/iX, which is a proprietary
operating system - meaning that there are no other systems which run MPE/iX.

What makes the HP3000 "open" - is introduction of POSIX to MPE, which permits
MPE/iX to run code compiled using POSIX libraries (which resemble or could even
be the same as Unix libraries).

Thusly, code written to POSIX (or even Unix) - with few exceptions - can be
ported over and run under MPE/iX.

The AS/400 also has a POSIX layer, but it is not nearly as robust as MPE/iX as
IBM was a little late in the game to introduce POSIX to OS/400.  Yes, they
ported Apache over to OS/400 - and they ported Samba as well.  One thing to
keep in mind when it comes to the 400 - IBM is FINALLY playing "catch up" to HP
in the "proprietary" marketplace ;-)

Regards,
Joe

"Always remember:  Some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the
statue"

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