Re: What do you like about your i? Was->RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather Than Switch

What I like about our AS/400 that I hope is traded in, for an "i", some 
day RSN:

1. It never goes down. In twelve years, three boxes, only two unplanned 
outages. Once when a space heater was plugged into the UPS; once when the 
AS/400's own power supply failed.

2. Service. Maintenance is very pricey, compared to the Wintel world, but 
worth every penny and more when needed. See point 1., the power supply 
failure. IBM had a replacement on site in less than three hours. I know 
where the part came from, and the laws of physics do not permit objects to 
move that fast.

3. Manageable. There is a way, if you can find it, to do just about 
anything in a stable, secure manner.

4. Secure. Sure, some of that is due to obscurity. Who wants to learn as 
much as you would have to know in order to effectively hack i5/OS? Today's 
twenty-somethings just don't have the patience. And yes, some of that 
obscurity may be due to an ever-increasing scarcity of targets to practice 
on. But mostly security comes from the underlying integrity of the 
platform's architecture.

5. The integrated database and related tools.

6. The fanatical, almost unreasoning, loyalty of its users to the platform 
and fellow adherents. Even when they are yelling at each other.

7. And just about everything else I can think of EXCEPT PRINTING.

Darrell

Darrell A. Martin  -  630-754-2187
Manager, Computer Operations
dmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



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