Rumors of the Mainframe's death are greatrly exaggerated (Was: Tech is the biggest problem facing archiving

On Sun, 7 Apr 2013, Guy Sotomayor wrote: IIRC, the first time that I read "The Mainframe is Dead" was before the existence or even proposal of MICRO-computers, in an article belatedly "announcing" the existence of Mini-computers. About the same time, "books and libraries are dead", but well before "disk drives (spinning rust with moving parts) are dead". Does the population of the UNdead exceed that of the living? Where's my damn hovercar? That was s'posed to make automobiles dead. Where's the advanced (DNA?) medical research that would end cancer and aging? (and make Death Dead) The Mainframe certainly IS dead, IFF we define it as such. Some current ones no longer require a forklift and a UNION moving crew. Many/most are no longer larger enough for you, or any but a TINY scope, to get lost in. If we define "mainframe" as more than 32 bits or more than 1MB of RAM, then there are now billions? of them. (YES, those were used as definitions once!) If we define "mainframe" as the 99th percentile of size, then by definition they can never die. Please tell me that Dell doesn't make anything that they call a "Mainframe"! If we define computer based "mobile devices" (otherwise known as a "phone") as being computers, then mainframes certainly occupy less than 0.01% of the numbers, or maybe even bandwidth!. Disunirregardless of whether the mainframe population is growing or shrinking. Ken Olsen (DEC) once said that there was only need for half a dozen. So long as there is still need for half a dozen, then it ain't dead! "Who would want a computer on their desk?" It might as well be in "The Clod"! Certainly, there are MANY tasks, such as beginning programming classes, that once used mainframes, and have finally been moved to more appropriate platforms. But, we shall continue to reinvent the flat-tire. What manages "The Clod"? -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com