# IBM AS/400

11 Hacker News commenters recommended IBM AS/400 and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for reliability, stability and low maintenance under heavy business load. Critics call it legacy and hard to maintain without IBM.

## Why people recommend it

- Highly reliable, stable business platform (3 comments): "The hardware is built for high reliability, and the OS and application software stack have a lot of integration." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966535)) "The as400 is the most robust/stable environment I've ever worked on for business applications" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49147247)) "High capacity, super reliable box that you could run your entire business stack on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965464))
- Handles heavy load with little maintenance (2 comments): "High capacity, super reliable box that you could run your entire business stack on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965464)) "handled incredible amounts of load, and required little maintenance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47439928))
- Proven, long-running dependability (2 comments): "People been doing business with text-mode AS360's for ages, and nobody complained." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46887322)) "If it ain't broke, why fix it?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45826379))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Oxide Computer rack](https://hackerapproved.com/p/oxide-computer.md): 92 recommend
- [IBM Z mainframe](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ibm-mainframe.md): 23 recommend
- [IBM POWER](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ibm-power.md): 13 recommend
- [Nvidia GH200 server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-gh200-server.md): 12 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "IBM AS/400", https://hackerapproved.com/p/as-400/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).