IBMLink, the place Big Blue's mainframe customers go for online support, suffered a weekend of downtime between 8 June and 11 June.

Posters on a Google group called the problems "absurd", but a spokeswoman for IBM told the Reg it was planned maintenance and publicly announced. She wasn't sure quite where it was publicly announced though.

One poster said: "Down all weekend as near as I can tell. Unacceptable since we (and most other shops) do weekend upgrades." Some claimed the problem was because IBM was moving its mainframe support off a mainframe and onto another architecture.

Another asked: "It has been slow or down all day. How can an organization (IBM) who is trying to promote the mainfame as a platform of choice, migrate one of their most important functions off the mainframe? Sounds like very few listserv members are happy with their decision and we are their loudest advocates."

There's more on Google groups here, here, and here. ®