IBM i
Shares rank 51 of 87 operating systems by recommenders
Recommended for a robust platform that runs business systems such as Costco's inventory management; the most common caveat is license costs.
Recommended for a robust platform that runs business systems such as Costco's inventory management; the most common caveat is license costs.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 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.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
High license and hardware costs
“The problem is license costs. IBM makes a great system but almost all their customers have been working hard to replace it”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “IBM i (OS/400) the Database Operating System” “The barrier to entry is set at the price level of an IBM Power server”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “IBM i (OS/400) the Database Operating System” Hard to learn, poorly documented
“They offer classes, but don't make it easy - you have to join COMMON (their user group) and/or be enrolled in a university.”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “IBM i (OS/400) the Database Operating System” “I really struggled to understand OS/400 coming in with a working knowledge of Unix/Linux”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “IBM i (OS/400) the Database Operating System” “It's a shame the IBMi is so poorly documented”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “IBM i (OS/400) the Database Operating System”
Other operating systems people recommend
The four most recommended other operating systems, 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.
See all 87 operating systems, rankedWhat people said
14 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“actually good at this, with a standard interaction design centered around menus and form interfaces”
“they took the concept incredibly far”
“testament to its robustness”
“I really struggled to understand OS/400 coming in with a working knowledge of Unix/Linux”
“IBM guards the SLIC or OS "golden tapes" very jealously”
“They offer classes, but don't make it easy - you have to join COMMON (their user group) and/or be enrolled in a university.”
“It's a shame the IBMi is so poorly documented”
“The problem is license costs. IBM makes a great system but almost all their customers have been working hard to replace it”
“The barrier to entry is set at the price level of an IBM Power server”
“served as a fantastic basis for the cloud stack and agents of today”
“Costco's entire inventory management system runs on IBM i”
“the terse and unhelpful menus and error messages”
“The problem wasn't the AS/400 (IBM i) it was the 5250 interface.”
“Turned out the thing was pretty CPU-poor and crashed the factory.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.