Re: New redpaper: i5/OS Program Conversion: Getting readyfor i5/OSV6R1 - old versions

Yes, we have lots of clients still on V4 etc too. You's be surprised how many manufacturing clients for example, out there in the real world, running 24 hour shops, would rather keep on manufacturing and selling and shipping than stop for a long weekend (and the rest) to upgrade the operating system! It works - why change it?? Only when they realise they have boxed themselves into a corner do they act. And often they are still running on old hardware, 620s and 720s, because their software (ERP) providers are demanding silly money for upgrading the key, and so they can't upgrade to the latest OS anyway.....
And it is all complicated further by the fact that they have boxes in many countries, with different languages and DBCS, and different IBMs (in Saudi or Malaysia for example IBM is 'ruled' by local company shares), and different policies - and if they upgrade some but not all there can be issues.
After all, upgrading is not the holy grail - making money out of the business is what they are interested in.
We can look at the system they have and see that if they consolidated on one or three boxes gobally they could upgrade and etc etc, but it isn't that easy in real life, and politics comes into it too! China won't accept running on the Malaysian box, nor will Singapore, etc etc!!
But they are buying new software - Bradley's and ours, and others too....

cheers,

Clare

Clare Holtham
Director, Small Blue Ltd
www.smallblue.co.uk
IBM Certified Systems Professional
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bradley V. Stone" <brad@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 8:13 PM
Subject: RE: New redpaper: i5/OS Program Conversion: Getting readyfor i5/OSV6R1


Oh yes... I certainly do. You'd be surprised how many on V4xx I sell too.
I know I am. :)

I would guess at least 20-30% are pre V5, another 30-40 are V5R1/2 and the
rest maybe V5R3/4. I would be willing to bet other ISVs that do support
lower OS versions would have similar numbers. Of course, if you only
support V5R1 and up, you probably won't have many V4 customers.

It was actually just earlier this year I bumped from V3R2 to V4R5. Only had
a couple issues (V4R2 that I just gave them old versions of my software, and
when they upgrade OS they can upgrade my software). So I may have beena
little over catious.

But, as you said, they probably don't want to spend 10k on the software so
they get it from me for a couple hundred. :)

This, my friends, is the reason when I write articles, books, etc, my code
is not free-format yet. lol! Everything I do is still fixed.

Bradley V. Stone
BVSTools - www.bvstools.com
eRPG SDK - www.erpgsdk.com

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 1:56 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: New redpaper: i5/OS Program Conversion: Getting readyfor
i5/OSV6R1


Do you really make new sales to businesses running older than V5R1?
Perhaps it is a little prejudice on my part but I often suspected that
people running older versions didn't want to put a dime into their i5 and
therefore were not inclined to purchase new software for it.

Rob Berendt
--
Group Dekko Services, LLC
Dept 01.073
PO Box 2000
Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





"Bradley V. Stone" <brad@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
07/23/2007 02:52 PM
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RE: New redpaper: i5/OS Program Conversion: Getting ready for i5/OSV6R1






I would be MORE than happy to support only IBM supported OS releases.. but
since I don't charge "outrageous" prices/maintenance/support (lol) I'd be
losing out on about 1/2 of my sales... Every little bit helps for me. I
personally am in no way pounding my chest bragging how far back my
software
goes. :)

I will most likely be movingn to V5R1 as a min OS very soon. If someone
needs an older version, I can give them an older version of my software.

Bradley V. Stone
BVSTools - www.bvstools.com
eRPG SDK - www.erpgsdk.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces+brad=bvstools.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces+brad=bvstools.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
> rob@xxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 1:46 PM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: Re: New redpaper: i5/OS Program Conversion: Getting ready for
> i5/OSV6R1
>
>
> It is a major pain in the ...
>
> Basically the rule is if your program has been recompiled with V5R1 or
> later you shouldn't generally have any problems - observability or no.
>
> About a year ago many ISV's were thrown into a room together and
> told this
> and to prepare. In general, they haven't. IBM will release PTF's that
> will bring back ANZOBJCVN and STROBJCVN (if you want to spread out the
> conversion time). Until these ptf's are available there are alternative
> ways to generate this information. Basically you're looking for
programs
> and service programs compiled prior to V5R1 with no observability.
> Wrapping the right API into a UDF and bouncing that against the output
> from DSPOBJD or some such thing works fine.
>
> Some vendors that I know of that need work with their - publicly
released
> - versions include:
> TL Ashford
> SSA's BPCS (at least the old 405CD version we use)
> Seagull
> Unicorn (but since they are dropping all their customers and telling
them
> to go elsewhere good luck getting a refresh).
> Softlanding's Turnover.
>
> Once again, I'd rather buy software from a vendor that proudly
> displays on
> their website that they only support versions of OS that are currently
> supported by IBM than a vendor who pounds their chest and brags
> that their
> software still runs on V2R1. There are vendors that DO display these
> disclaimers on their website.
>
>
> Rob Berendt
> --
> Group Dekko Services, LLC
> Dept 01.073
> PO Box 2000
> Dock 108
> 6928N 400E
> Kendallville, IN 46755
> http://www.dekko.com
>
>
>
>
>
> David Gibbs <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> 07/23/2007 01:29 PM
> Please respond to
> Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> To
> Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> cc
>
> Fax to
>
> Subject
> New redpaper: i5/OS Program Conversion: Getting ready for i5/OS V6R1
>
>
>
>
>
>
> This redpaper just showed up on the http://planet.midrange.com feed
> today ...
>
> Abstract: IBM® plans to deliver i5/OS® V6R1 in 2008. With this new
> release, IBM will require conversion of all programs created under
> previous releases that use the i5/OS Machine Interface (MI). This
> conversion upgrades and refreshes programs to take advantage of the
> latest system enhancements, including enhanced system integrity,
> improved performance, and a range of new operating system and processor
> capabilities. In order for a program to be converted, its creation data
> (sometimes referred to as observability) must be available. Programs
> created for V5R1 or later have their creation data automatically saved
> during program creation. Clients and ISVs with programs created for
> OS/400® V4R5 and earlier need to ensure that the creation data is
> available for the conversion process.
>
>
> http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4293.html
>
> --
> System i ... for when you can't afford to be out of business
> --
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