RE: as400 as exchange server

["Bob Crothers" <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

LS,

I agree with pretty much all you say.

Decent SMTP could be developed or migrated for the /400.  Don't know if I'd
use sendmail as it seem to be the subject of a lot of CERT alerts, but
regardless, it could be done.

But, the piece you left out of the equation is money.  If I spend $100,000
(1 programmer for 6 months, marketing costs, documentation costs, etc, etc
and this is a low estimate) developing a decent SMTP,  who would buy it?
When IBM gives it away free?  And then IBM actually fixes their product.
Now who will buy it?  Nobody.  Ask Inet (www.inetmi.com ) how many people
are still purchasing their base HTTP server.  Very few I'll bet.

Could it be done as Open Source, with no vendor involved with the intent of
making it public domain? Yes.  But it will take somebody to get it started
(You?).  I can offer AS/400 machine time, on a system that has ILE/C,
Internet access and not currently running IBM SMTP.  I also have some, IMHO,
pretty slick sockets encapsulation code (See my post this am regarding
TCP/IP).

Migration from the Unix world might also be an option.  Sometimes this is
easy, sometimes not.  Depends on the code.  The "config" stuff would all
have to be rewritten, but the actual SMTP would probably be migratable (is
that a word?).

What do you think?  I am semi-serious about this.  Perhaps we should take
this private?

Regards,
Bob Crothers
Cornerstone Communications


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of L. S. Russell
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 9:20 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: as400 as exchange server

Yes, you are right. However, the point is not that NT is so much the
better tool but that software like Exchange server, that is to say
software of similar functionality, is not available for the 400.
And before you guys start, there is no way you can tell me that it can't
be done. If you say that then you are selling yourselves, other
developers and the AS/400 short.
People who develop software on and for the AS/400 are no less
intelligent than those who develop for other platforms they just lack
the drive. This lack of focus and drive comes from years of IBM
mismarketing and under marketing the platform. In addition to this there
is also the huge drain placed on developers when they read article after
article telling them how much better NT is than the AS/400 and what
fools they are for not latching on to the first shiny NT (with
Micro$ofts all powerful Java VM) box that passes by.

Now what can be done to change this? First developers must take control
of the direction of marketing and of the method of development.
Developers must pour both time, money and effort back into the AS/400.
If there is a tool like Exchange server for NT then given enough time,
resources and incentive a similar more stable product can be developed
for the AS/400.

You are correct when you say SMTP server for AS/400 blows, and why is
that? Because IBM failed to realize what a powerful resource is
available to them in the AS/400 programming community. Peer reviewed
software such as qpopper and sendmail and other SMTP servers available
to the linux world are almost bulletproof. The same can happen for the
AS/400, and if you try to tell me that those of us who work daily with
AS/400 are not intelligent enough to grasp the complexities of a
language like C or protocols like tcp/ip, then I say who are you
kidding?



--
L. S. Russell Programmer/Analyst
THE PEOPLES PROGRAMMER
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