Re: Software Vendors (And US too) - A small rant

You can tell by the number of responses how polarizing this issue is. I'd be very curious which roles the purists have versus the roles of the people who call IBM silly and will still call it AS400. Perhaps the issue is that I have one dog in this fight while some of you have all of your dogs in it.

Right but it's not a fight, but rather practicality. As many have said, IBM i is basically unrecognizable through 1/2 of the industry, a horrible google search term, it doesn't roll off the tongue. AS/400 sounds beautiful but iSeries is better. Saying IBM i in causal conversation even amongst people who know just sounds odd and usually ends up in someone saying "whatever the hell we're supposed to call it today".

That and it's inconsistent. The library I use every day is IBM.Data.DB2.iSeries. That's at least part of the reason it's still the iSeries to me.

When I login on 5250 I see one single thing on the main menu that reminds me that it's IBM i. But our admin's login screen still says iSeries. We've only had our 7.1 box a month. You shouldn't be too surprised that it's still as400 or iseries when shops are still running as400 or iseries boxes ;) Plus, you can change the name all you want but it's still for all intents and purpose the same product, just with more features bolted on, coupled with very few reminders of a changed name.

I can understand the gripe about a software vendor working on 7.1 though. But the story about someone walking away from the deal because the wrong name was used is simply batshit. Clearly that person has no vested interest in the financial health of their company if they walk away from deals based on silly emotions or theories. Does this industry consists of nothing but type A personality people similar to "Sheldon" from the big bang theory? I guess I can understand if that's the case.

Which brings me to my final point. It just doesn't matter. Mountains out of molehills. I argue that anyone who calls it AS400 is still right. The whole point of the system is to blur the lines between old and new. 5250 is still the main interface, the system still has no VGA/PS2 keyboard port... "Your old software can run unmodified on this new hardware". So why are people so surprised when the line is blurry? Changing the name won't convince anyone that the system is modern or different. They still see the green screen, to them it's still old. The true problem here is that the technology people (us) are inept at explaining to others why it's still good and why the system is (very) far from archaic. The secondary problem is that we shouldn't have to, IBM should do a better job conveying but based on the old OS/2 commercials if those idiots are still running the marketing department, IBM i is headed straight for the dumpster.

Here is an honest question. If an ISV develops for and knows V5R4. What are they missing? What makes them stupid or irrelevant? Can they not develop an excellent product that runs on 7.1 without even touching it? Isn't that the WHOLE POINT of this system? What are the new must haves from a software development perspective of 7.1 that they don't know? Web services integration? V5R4 had that, Java? Had it, etc. Similarly plenty of people coding on 7.1 are dinosaurs who haven't embraced anything new and the system happily coddles them.

Thanks,
Mark



On 12/12/2012 8:55 AM, Trevor Perry wrote:

Regardless of whether or not it is a good or horrible name, if we fight
it, we just look ridiculous. If we wish to support the platform, and
support our own future in this industry, fighting back with a personal
beef about a branding is just going to make us all look utterly
incompetent, and really does not help the future of the platform.

IBM have given us the IBM i branding, whether we like it or not, it is the
brand name that will be used for longer than any other on this platform.
Not a single one of us is skilled at marketing or branding, and definitely
not for a company like IBM. We don't and won't get a say in the branding,
period. It is time to get used to it, and get over our personal
preferences.


On 12/12/12 8:42 AM, "Mark D" <mdlkml@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

IBM I is a horrible name and nothing any of us can do will change that.
But we sure can fight it.