Yesterday I attended a zLinux User Group event in London.

From Novell, Marcus Kraft spoke.

Marc MacDonald of JLP did a very interesting presentation about their history with Linux on zSeries, which goes back to 2002.

But particularly interesting and entertaining was Barton Robinson of Velocity Software, who described their offerings (which account for usage in detail and allow proper charging for all aspects of usage of Linux virtual machines on the mainframe). He explained the difference in uptake of zLinux in the UK and the US in terms of the fact that IT within organisations is run on a profit centre basis in the US, so people really know what different services cost, while in the UK it is much more often treated as a cost centre, and subject to (his words) CIOs' "religious" views as well as being much more prone to being outsourced.