Re: Trevor on AS/400 vs. System i was->RE: MSFT video demos Host Integration Server

Aaron,

While I beat on the brand drum in this forum (ok - a lot), there is work I
put in other areas. I speak on modernization a lot. My session called "How
to be an IT Survivor" is also a smack in the face for a lot of green
programmers. I work on refacing and modernizing applications where the users
no longer know what hardware is running the application. I talk to IBM a lot
about naming, GUI, modernization, etc. Yes, I pound on a lot of people. You
don't see any of that in this forum.

FWIW, IBM already has a GUI or two for i. I choose to use other solutions,
and get better results. Changing the GUI is like using the right name - it
is just ONE of many things we MUST do. Some of it is about perception, and
some of it is about having modern applications on our platform.

I still maintain that a small thing as the community calling it by the right
name will go a long way to maintaining the platform for our future. But it
is not my only gig.

Trevor



On 6/5/07 11:59 AM, "albartell" <albartell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It really is such a simple thing. It is amazing how difficult it is for

some people to make such a simple change.

I try to call it by it's current name as best I can, but that simply isn't
the problem with it's bad image. IBM is adding awesome new features to the
hardware and OS on a regular basis, but it still severely lacks in a native
GUI. The reason people have the perception that it is old is because IT
LOOKS OLD! Sure we have iSeries Navigator to do admin stuff (which I don't
use) but that doesn't help RPG developers who want to develop rich graphical
user interfaces on the platform.

I think if we keep saying AS/400 or iSeries, our careers will disappear

before our eyes. I also think that not using the new name is a poor excuse
for an inability to modernize oneself.

I think you have taken it upon yourself to try and change perception in the
community which I will say your efforts have been great. But you are on
this path where the only thing that matters to you (or the only thing I hear
in your postings) is that we need to call something that is relatively the
same a different name. Maybe you should start pounding on IBM to physically
change the UI image and see if that would work better for people's
perception??

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com