IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
Microsoft is coming to iSeries? Zoweeeeee! Now we will be seeing the Blue Screen of Death on an iSeries also. Yay. Never dreamed of that in my 25 years of S3x/400. Now I can see it coming!!!

[R.Daugherty]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
Many valid points said here BUT My company is loosing customers because they have no clue what an AS/400 / iSeries / i5 is. Newer management staff have never heard of it because IBM has not and is not marketing it. Even the new (not)add that everyone is talking about does nothing to increase name awareness. It does not imprint the machine name on the viewer. It looks just like (even same actors) all of IBMs other ads. Why would anybody think of using this machine anymore if it has no legitmate, promoted user interface. It used to 5250, but that has been put down instead of extended. Now the operating system it self uses an interface that IBM has de-legitmized by calling it legacy. Then they provided no replacement. Webshere is not a replacement because it cannot be used to run the operating system commands (without also using a 5250 emulator). Why would I run Websphere on an iSeries if I can run it cheaper on anything and every other platform. And don't give me that tired old line about the iseries doing it better. My experiences with Web serving and file serving from the iSeries have shown it to be far too slow compared to a (pardon my french) Windows machine. Yes, I have been a loyal fan of the machine going all the way back to R1 of the S/38. We didn't even have an SDA back then. But IBM has screwed this machine over with what it has said in its marketing and by not effectively marketing this wonderful platform. I understand the business basis for this path, but that does not ease my frustration or pay the rent. Shane. This post should be made the epitaph for the AS/400/iseries/i5/ad nauseam's headstone. It says it all, eloquently. May the AS/400 rest in peace. rd

[shane]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
My company is loosing customers because they have no clue what an AS/400 / iSeries / i5 is. Newer management staff have never heard of it because IBM has not and is not marketing it. Even the new (not)add that everyone is talking about does nothing to increase name awareness. It does not imprint the machine name on the viewer. It looks just like (even same actors) all of IBMs other ads. Why would anybody think of using this machine anymore if it has no legitmate, promoted user interface. It used to 5250, but that has been put down instead of extended. Now the operating system it self uses an interface that IBM has de-legitmized by calling it legacy. Then they provided no replacement. Webshere is not a replacement because it cannot be used to run the operating system commands (without also using a 5250 emulator). Why would I run Websphere on an iSeries if I can run it cheaper on anything and every other platform. And don't give me that tired old line about the iseries doing it better. My experiences with Web serving and file serving from the iSeries have shown it to be far too slow compared to a (pardon my french) Windows machine. Yes, I have been a loyal fan of the machine going all the way back to R1 of the S/38. We didn't even have an SDA back then. But IBM has screwed this machine over with what it has said in its marketing and by not effectively marketing this wonderful platform. I understand the business basis for this path, but that does not ease my frustration or pay the rent. Shane.

[R.Daugherty]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
To the degree that this post referred to Microsoft Office, neither cost nor technology were the primary factors. Using the Windows monopoly to control distribution of Office and undercut the leading products they couldn't compete with is. Now they have two monopolies. rd

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
Joe: Did you not read Thomas' column? I'll repeat the relevent section: i5/OS is now even portable to the IBM p5 Power Processors. That's right! You can now get a CD of the operating system and load it onto an IBM Power 5 eServer p5 piece of hardware, and it will run flawlessly. In fact, the same Power 5 processor that runs the newest i5 is exactly (and I mean exactly!) the same one that runs in the IBM p5 (once called the pSeries). Imagine that! IBM is actually merging the hardware platforms! What will they think of next? I don't know why Thomas sounds amazed. iSeries and pSeries hardware has been virtually idential for years now anyways. i and p have simply been the same machine but branded differently and targetted to different markets. semifor is right. If you have to choose between an iSeries and a pSeries, the only differentiating factor is that iSeries will run a legacy RPG or COBOL app. Both machines run Linux/Posix code, which offer the most flexibility (that is in terms of commodity hardware and a wide range of high productivuty tools). If you have no legacy OS/400 code, there's no good reason to start now writing new legacy OS/400 code. q

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
Robert Dean said: "2) Forced OEMs that wanted to bundle Windows to bundle Office." Of course, until recently, those wishing to purchase an AS/400 or iSeries was forced to purchase OS/400. A forced bundle that you must have. But the anti-Microsoft crowd doesn't see that in the same light as a PC with Windows. Currently you can purchase other OS's for the i5 but can you purchase them from anybody other than IBM? The PC world is abundant with choices. Why do most choose Microsoft? Because it's "good enough" and most of the world doesn't want to be bothered with choices when it comes to their computer. Either they are intimidated or just don't care. Just as I don't care which OS and software runs on my cell phone, just as long as I can make a call. I started to see cheap PCs, under $200, at Fry's in the early fall and they didn't include anything but FREE software. Linux, OpenOffice, etc. That stopped about 2 months ago so I can only presume that they got a ton of backlash from customers that got the machine home, found out it didn't come with Windows and a Microsoft package (Office or Works) and promptly returned them. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.

[rdean400@yahoo.com]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
Your sarcasm ignores the fact that Word wasn't superior when it became dominant. Word Perfect was better. 1-2-3 was better. Microsoft did two things that really killed the competition. One was legitimate, and the other wasn't: 1) Bundled the applications together and offered them for slightly more than getting just one of the competing applications. 2) Forced OEMs that wanted to bundle Windows to bundle Office. Notice that neither of these is based on technical superiority. They were "good enough", and the revenue stream they were getting from DOS allowed them to sell Office as a loss-leader to choke off R&D resources the other companies needed. It's very similar to how Wal-Mart has driven Toys R Us to the brink of closing.

[R.Daugherty]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **

last I knew C for any other system didn't work under OS/400 because pointers weren't supported due to OS/400 and AS/400 CPU memory protection.

There are a few issues with C under OS/400, but mostly you can indeed take a C example off the web, paste it into a source member, compile and run it. Pointers work great in C and RPG. fork() doesn't work because OS400 won't let another process share memory.

If this C/C++ claim is true, then all that software written in C elsewhere will run under OS/400 now.

I wish! There aren't any true plug & play C programs. That is, no matter what platform you move your C code to, you'll be in there making some changes to make it work on the new OS.

What does this Power5/i5/OS5 etc. etc. do, specifically, that it didn't do under OS/400, and how?

The Hardware Management Console is probably the big one. You no longer need to designate a primary partition in an LPAR arrangement. --buck Thanks for that info, buck. I should have said some types of pointer usage is not supported instead of pointers, as far as I could tell from the limited information released about it. I don't have the details of what exactly fails under OS/400, but I saw some comments from knowledgeable writers that seemed to point to pointer manipulation failing to be executed by the OS/400 CPU due to some combination of hardware and OS memory protection from invalid memory access. Whatever it is, because IBM requires a "port" to the OS/400 PASE environment under AIX, my take on it is that IBM can't even get their AIX C compiler to run under PASE. In any event, Chuck said it well in another post. The AS/400 is where the mainframers in Armonk want it. On that note, I'll concentrate on a personal Java project for awhile until perhaps AS/400 RPG projects pick up after the holidays. Merry Christmas, bah, humbug, and all that stuff. rd

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND. LESS JOB OPPORTUNITY MEANS LESS INTEREST FOR ASPIRING STUDENTS. LESS SUBJECT ENROLLMENT MEANS NO SUBJECT OFFERING BY MAJOR/IVY SCHOOLS.

[bmturney]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
I would really like to see IBM push the i5 through some of the major universities, and working with the schools to offer a class for the i5 server. Schools offer courses in Windows, Unix/Linux, and I have even seen some mainframe courses, but I have not seen any midrange courses offered at any college or university higher than a community college. Maybe they do exist, I have just never seen them. If anyone knows of a major university offering one I would love to hear about it.

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
bmturney said: "Word is a leader because of marketing.. not superiority." Bingo! That's often the case in compeitive products. History is littered with inferior products becoming the leader. Not only has the midrange been poorly marketed, it has purposely been supressed by the S/370,S/390,zSeries types who loathed it's superior design. The AS/400 is in the terrible position it is today simply because that's where Armonk wanted it to be. Now "services" is the golden ticket and the midrange is just lingering. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.

[bmturney]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
Word is a leader because of marketing.. not superiority. Word was packaged with a suite of highly useful business related software, none of which are really superior products in their space, but because they were packaged together, and integrated so well, made it attractive to non-technical computer users. It was this marketing scheme that gave Word it's marketshare, not because it was a superior product.

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
bmturney said: "So many of the existing iSeries and i5 shops vastly under utilize the capabilities of this platform, just because they are unfamiliar with what it can really do." The same can be said for Microsoft Word, yet it's the leader. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.

[bmturney]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
The real problem that IBM faces, and this holds true in almost every AS400/iSeries/i5 shop I have been in, is that most of the users (not all but a vast majority) of this platform are not revolutional type thinkers... they are very happy with "the way things are" and like things the way they used to be. They get comfortable with a platform or technology and don't want to change (other than just making it faster). I have seen countless developers still using PDM, when they have what is, in my opinion, an outstanding IDE in the WebSphere Development Studio client. When asked why? "I just like the green screen, I know how to use it". IBM needs to market this technology, not to the existing customer base, but to fresh meat. They need to get the attention of the IT management that is sick and tired of having to patch and reboot their Windows servers on a daily basis. Or that are sick and tired of Microsoft forcing them to conform to their own standards. So many of the existing iSeries and i5 shops vastly under utilize the capabilities of this platform, just because they are unfamiliar with what it can really do. I think it would be good for IBM to find those shops that are really utilizing some of the newer technology in this platform and hold them up as examples of how it should be used... take them on road shows, bring them to Common, show people real world exmaples of just how powerful this platform is.

[dmjae2004@yahoo.com]

IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange

** This thread discusses the article: IBM vs. Microsoft in the Midrange **
I dont believe it is about a single programming model. I do believe it is about being able to consolidate business solutions onto a single server. These solutions could be based on technology of Linux, AIX, OS/400 or Windows Server. The ability to have a machine running with no OS/400 partition is different.