
The Eternal Mainframe (2013) - winestock
http://www.winestockwebdesign.com/Essays/Eternal_Mainframe.html
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klodolph
It's not paying by the hour that was the problem, it was the huge capex and
million dollar service contracts that made people want freedom. In that sense,
cloud is the opposite of mainframe: instead of, "Here, spend a million dollars
and get locked into a service contract," it's, "Here, spend $0 up front and
just pay for usage, then leave whenever you want."

~~~
IncRnd
> _It 's not paying by the hour that was the problem, it was the huge capex
> and million dollar service contracts that made people want freedom. In that
> sense, cloud is the opposite of mainframe:_

Actually, it was identical according to you description. Today, there is the
decision of on-prem vs of remote computing, which was the same decision then.

> _instead of, "Here, spend a million dollars and get locked into a service
> contract," it's, "Here, spend $0 up front and just pay for usage, then leave
> whenever you want."_

The huge capex and million dollar service contracts still exist today, for
example. There have been articles posted here on HN about companies that moved
to the cloud for savings, grew their business, and eventually left their cloud
provider due to high costs.

~~~
klodolph
> Actually, it was identical according to you description. Today, there is the
> decision of on-prem vs of remote computing, which was the same decision
> then.

No, it wasn't the same decision. With cloud I can use as much or as little
cloud resources as I'd like, and I only pay for what I use. Back in the day,
remote computing was not like that.

> The huge capex and million dollar service contracts still exist today, for
> example.

Right, that's exactly what I was saying. Cloud offers an alternative to huge
capex, which is the biggest drawback of mainframes, not counting the fact
mainframes are difficult to second-source.

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monocasa
I think the writers of Borg at Google thought the same thing.

BCL is just one part that's clearly inspired OS/360 et al. (look at JCL).

------
romwell
>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

Already happened, unfortunately. Google's ecosystem, is tuned to constantly
nudge you towards the cloud. My pet peeve is their "discontinuing" of Picasa
(offline photo manager/editor/viewer) and removing the download links from
their websites, and peddling Google Photos (cloud service) as a "replacement".
It also takes mental effort to prevent photos from going to the cloud when you
get a new phone.

------
theandrewbailey
> This is why “free” and open source software (FOSS) will not help us. A
> software license touches on the software, not on the human relationships
> which the software mediates. It is those relationships that lock us into
> positions where Zuckerberg's foot is on our necks.

I have never heard such a succinct reason why Stallman's crusade against
proprietary software will not work. I will remember this.

~~~
yarrel
Succinct but wrong.

Here's Stallman in 2010:

[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-
really-s...](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-
serve.en.html)

