AS/400 OS/400 Hobbyists?

Guys, I'm intrigued by the availability of AS/400 machines ; the prices are within grasp of the typical mainframe/minicomputer enthusiast. However.... What are the licensing methods available for OS/400? I'd really love to get a PPC AS/400 and run Linux under control of OS/400 using the partitioning scheme. The idea of running several Linux instances on a nice cool-looking chunk of IBM hardware sounds really neat. (And yes, I have heard of and used User-Mode Linux on x86) I've seen a few messages regarding home users of AS/400, and the messages aren't very positive with respect to using one of these machines for home/hobbyist use. Does IBM have a hobbyist program similar to what is available for OpenVMS? Do licenses for OS/400 expire and start shutting down CPU availability in the machine? Are licenses applied to OS/400 such that you have to "plug in" licenses to enable certain hardware/software components? It think it would be really cool to work with an AS/400, but only if it doesn't start shutting down and beg for license renewals! Thanks for any insight that you IBM gurus have on this.... - Matt Matthew Sell Programmer On Time Support, Inc. www.ontimesupport.com (281) 296-6066 Join the Metrology Software discussion group METLIST! http://www.ontimesupport.com/subscribe_t&c.htmlhtml. "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitler Many thanks for this tagline to a fellow RGVAC'er...