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> From: Joel Cochran > > Please define "jumps ship". This is not some "Survivor" style contest > to see who can be last standing on the 400! I am an ISV: because my > customers are local governments, I have precious little control over > what platforms they require. I get fewer and fewer opportunities to > even BID on projects because the terms are already set in stone, and > more and more those terms require SQLServer. As I see it, I have two > choices: I can be an iSeries loyalist and sink, or I can develop > alternatives. I choose to develop alternatives, and I'm doing so with > IBM supplied tools such as the .Net Managed Provider. One of my goals > is to help my customers keep the iSeries a viable part of their IT > structure, but my primary goal is to stay in business. Joel, I feel for ya, buddy. I understand the situation you are in, and I can hardly blame you. The fact that you are in a vertical niche and your niche is moving to Microsoft sucks bigtime. Would I rather you held out and shone as a bastion of shining iSeries sanity within the bleak night of Microsoft madness? Sure I would! But you gotta make a living, as you say. And really, I'm not even specifically targeting those folks who have created a second version of their software that will run on a non-iSeries platform. Were I an iSeries customer and I had a choice between an dedicated iSeries product and someone who plays in multiple arenas, I might choose the dedicated iSeries vendor, but that's a different issue. Indeed, some people scared about the future of the iSeries might choose the vendor with a portable solution. But moving to Microsoft because you're worried about a proprietary solution is kind of like going to Iraq to get away from urban violence. But in any event, ISVs forced to provide secondary platform solutions are not the ones I worry about. No, the folks I think are weasels are the ones who are trying to move existing iSeries clients off of the box, or who are willing to tell a prospective client to go with Windows instead of the iSeries. I have yet to see a good technical argument as to why you would choose Windows over iSeries, so I think anyone who doesn't firmly tell a prospect that the iSeries is the better product is indeed an opportunist of the worst sort. If, however, the prospect tells you to go hang and wants a Windows solution (or a Java solution, or a LAMP solution) and you can provide it, then more power to you. But even then, it's a decision that brings into play your own personal ethics. Maybe you can make money selling Windows solutions. You can also make money selling crack. Sometimes making money isn't enough of a reason, Joel. And the iSeries vendors who are joining this MAP, especially when it was originally created by ASNA and Microsoft specifically to move people off of the iSeries, well I believe there's a special ring of Hell for those folks. Joe
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