Re: Name help

Hi Bill,

1. What is the generic name of the hardware that runs IBM i? I
had been using "POWER systems," but the newest IBM style document
says in no uncertain terms that a) what I meant by "POWER systems"
must be capitalized as "Power Systems" and b) this family of computer
systems does not include the blade servers that also run IBM i. I am
ready to coin "IBM i system" as any lump of wires that can run IBM i.
Your suggestions?

At System iNEWS our standard is: when the word is all-caps "POWER", it refers to the processor. When it's capitalized as "Power Systems" it refers to the family of computer systems with that name. Power Systems is different from (and doesn't include ) Blade, System i, iSeries and AS/400.

When we want to refer to it generically, we say "The software runs on an i system" (note, "system" is not capitalized, since it's not referring to the product name, but rather is just the English word "system")

When referring to the OS, we refer to it as "IBM i", generically. Keeping IBM and i paired to make it easier to search for. When we want to refer to a specific version, we say "IBM i 6.1 or IBM i 5.3" No longer using VxRx notation. (Personally, I don't like that standard... but that's what they decided.)

2. My company sells only IBM i-related training, but I cannot say
so. Google Ad Words had no problem when I was an AS/400, iSeries, or
System i training company. But they will not let me say that I am an
IBM i training company. It seems that Google recognizes that "IBM"
is trademarked by someone they don't want suing them, but not any of
the other names. So how would you find me?

That seems like a problem in Google. Technically, AS/400, iSeries and System i are all registered trademarks of IBM, and so should have the same consequence as IBM i. Perhaps you need to get Google to talk to IBM?

But, I agree with your frustration. Changing the name again was perhaps the worst thing IBM could've done for this platform -- and they picked (arguably) the worst possible choice for a name.

Just to illustrate how fun this has become, I'm now pondering how to
change the name of a System i Access for Windows session called
"Advanced Tools for Power Users." Apparently "power" is a name I
can no longer use with its historical meaning. Arrgh!

Amen. I was unhappy when they chose "System i" since both "system" and "I" are ordinary English words. They've made it much worse with calling it just "i". And "power" is also a normal English word. It was a poor decision all-around.

Worse, they didn't follow it up by marketing. When you change the name of something, you need to make that name KNOWN to everyone. You need to advertise the living crap out of your name change. IBM (predictably) didn't.

Now nobody really knows what to call it. When you're talking to someone who isn't entrenched in our community, you can't call it "i" because they have no idea what you're talking about. You could say "it used to be System i" and they still don't know... iSeries they MIGHT know... but unless you want to have a whole conversation about it, you pretty much have to say "AS/400". If IBM pushed the name out to people, that wouldn't be the case. Oh well.