IBM AS/400
Ranked 5 of 6 servers by recommenders
Recommended for reliability, stability and low maintenance under heavy business load. Critics call it legacy and hard to maintain without IBM.
Recommended for reliability, stability and low maintenance under heavy business load. Critics call it legacy and hard to maintain without IBM.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 65%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Highly reliable, stable business platform
“The hardware is built for high reliability, and the OS and application software stack have a lot of integration.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Oxide raises $200M Series C” “The as400 is the most robust/stable environment I've ever worked on for business applications”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “IBM i (OS/400) the Database Operating System” “High capacity, super reliable box that you could run your entire business stack on”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Oxide raises $200M Series C” Handles heavy load with little maintenance
“High capacity, super reliable box that you could run your entire business stack on”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Oxide raises $200M Series C” “handled incredible amounts of load, and required little maintenance”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “LotusNotes” Proven, long-running dependability
“People been doing business with text-mode AS360's for ages, and nobody complained.”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery” “If it ain't broke, why fix it?”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: My family business runs on a 1993-era text-based-UI (TUI). Anybody else?”
Other servers people recommend
The four most recommended other servers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxide Computer rack | 92 | 20 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| IBM Z mainframe | 23 | 8 | 74% | 11 | — | Approved |
| IBM POWER | 13 | 5 | 72% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Nvidia GH200 server | 12 | 2 | 86% | 2 | — | — |
| IBM AS/400This page | 11 | 6 | 65% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The as400 is the most robust/stable environment I've ever worked on for business applications”
“AS/400 lineup was fully designed to optimize customer segmentation”
“AS/400 is still kicking but I'm not sure anyone would consider that anything but legacy”
“uncompromising on design ideals”
“document the AS/400 and release old OS to hobbyists”
“handled incredible amounts of load, and required little maintenance”
“The hardware is built for high reliability, and the OS and application software stack have a lot of integration.”
“High capacity, super reliable box that you could run your entire business stack on”
“People been doing business with text-mode AS360's for ages, and nobody complained.”
“they definitely have an aesthetic”
“It works well and is highly performant.”
“were absolutely horrible on the inside”
“get it to a shape where you can hire people to maintain it and not rely on IBM all the time”
“If it ain't broke, why fix it?”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.