Open system Vs Closed system

monasu1998 · Active User Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 176 Location: India

Hi All:

Sorry to ask a general question but it has been a long time this doubt is eating my brain.

Why mainframes is a Closed system and what are the differences between Open and closed system?

Thanks in Advance,

MILAN · New User Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 4

Hi there,
Mainframe is a closed system since it denies direct access to hardware.
The manufacturer,in this case IBM, installs the OS and the user applications can access the hardware only through this OS. In other words everything is proprietary.
Open systems on the other hand can be programmed by the user with full access to the hardware.

Sincerely,
Milan