# IBM i

10 Hacker News commenters recommended IBM i and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for a robust platform that runs business systems such as Costco's inventory management; the most common caveat is license costs.

## What people warn about

- High license and hardware costs (2 comments): "The problem is license costs. IBM makes a great system but almost all their customers have been working hard to replace it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49143583)) "The barrier to entry is set at the price level of an IBM Power server" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49143506))
- Hard to learn, poorly documented (3 comments): "They offer classes, but don't make it easy - you have to join COMMON (their user group) and/or be enrolled in a university." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49144142)) "I really struggled to understand OS/400 coming in with a working knowledge of Unix/Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49145822)) "It's a shame the IBMi is so poorly documented" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49143669))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Windows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows.md): 1287 recommend
- [macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macos.md): 1041 recommend
- [Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux.md): 745 recommend
- [Haiku](https://hackerapproved.com/p/haiku-os.md): 115 recommend
- [NetBSD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netbsd.md): 100 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.ibm.com/products/ibm-i)

## Cite as

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