RE: What's in a name? (not so PRIVATE REPLY)

True, since there's a premium charge for this platform, of course nobody is 
going to buy i without os/400.  However, to a prospective customer who knows 
nothing of OS/400, what does the name of the OS tell them.... Nothing!

At least in the beginning of the naming shuffle, "i" stood for "integration" 
(maybe that should be capitalized).  That at least give a prospective customer 
a reason to consider the platform.  At some point, i simply became part of the 
name, and the integration story got left untold.....

IBM is in a tight spot with this platform...  Why promote an integration 
solution that does not require a legion of services contracts, when IBMs 
business has become all about services.  IBM won't highlight the i message, 
because it doesn't generate income in the desired channels.....  

Oh, that's right...  Middleware!  WAS is a great generator of services income!  
But then, WAS runs on many less expensive platforms, and WAS is not tightly 
coupled to OS400 and its great i-features, so where's the value of WAS on i?

Perhaps IBM should sell System i to Apple...  They at least sell the hell out 
of the i-concept....

Eric


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Michael Ryan
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 11:02 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: What's in a name? (not so PRIVATE REPLY)


Excellent point...but...no one buys an iSeries to run Linux or AIX.
One *does* buy an iSeries to run OS/400...and maybe run something else
in addition.

On 1/25/07, DeLong, Eric <EDeLong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Go on, you didn't finish the list....

An iSeries runs OS/400 (or the i5/OS flavor), or Linux, or AIX...  Now, what 
point were you making? <g>

Just checking,
Eric