Re: IBM Lack of Macintosh Support -- MIDRANGE-L

One wonders why IBM is so dead set on not providing support for anything
except Windows workstations. My advertising department is using Macs for
page layouts and such. I want to be able to map an iSeries directory using
NetServer out so the Macs can establish a drive. Can't be done...here's
IBM's take on it:

I've said this many times.... IBM only cares about you if you're running Windows. They don't say it directly, but they definitely give you the impression that to choose the iSeries, you must also choose Windows.

They'll talk Java and Linux to you... but it's all hype. With only a few exceptions, their Java code is Windows-specific, and Linux is only useful as a partition on their servers, never as a workstation.

I've been fighting for YEARS, trying to be an iSeries user on FreeBSD. It's a constant uphill battle. And guess what, Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD.

Actually, things have improved a little bit. The IBM System Debugger works on any Java compatible system, including FreeBSD, Mac, Linux, etc.

IBM has created iSeries Access for Linux (but not for anything else)

That's a far cry from what we had back when I started complaining :) Back then, there was no 5250 client available (now there are several that run on FreeBSD) there was no support for SAMBA at all. The Java part of the Information Center didn't work for anything but Windows (but it does now.) and they've got an iSeries Access for the Web, which I'm hoping will work -- but I haven't yet had the opportunity to try.

WDSC is a really big deal to me, though. I can't tell you how aggravating it is that I can run Eclipse without any problems on FreeBSD, but if I want RPG coloring and syntax checking, it's Windows or nothing.

Also, the administration of the Digital Certificate Manager and HTTP Server are very intolerant. They use technologies that SHOULD be cross-platform, but aren't... DCM doesn't work from Mozilla or Firefox. In FreeBSD, I could use it if I used the Netscape 4.79 browser for Linux (under Linux emulation) but it wouldn't work otherwise. The HTTP server admin works under, err... I think it's Mozilla, but there's something else that it doesn't work with. (I don't remember, might even be IE)

The PTF ordering process doesn't work on all systems/browsers either.

It's unbelievable how just about every Web page on the Internet -- and, boy, there are a lot of them -- works with any web browser on any operating system. But IBM's stuff for the iSeries only works with Windows. It's like they REALLY REALLY want you to use Windows.

So, like I said... "to choose the iSeries is to choose Windows."