RE: What is an AS/400? -- MIDRANGE-L

Rob,

Although this isn't exactly what you asked for, it may help.  It is a good
thorough comparison of AS/400 and NT.

http://www.as400.ibm.com/conslt/nt.htm

Scott Mildenberger

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rob Dixon [SMTP:rob.dixon@erros.co.uk]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 4:21 AM
> To:   midrange-L@midrange.com
> Subject:      What is an AS/400?
> 
> I have only recently put the URL of my site on DNS, and now there is
> public access to it, I was thinking about what AS/400 links I might
> provide. 
> 
> In the vain(?) hope that one or two non AS/400 users might drop by, as a
> result of external links to my site that I intend to create, I thought
> that the first AS/400 link on my own site should be to a site that can
> answer the question "What is an AS/400?".  I am not looking for a detailed
> account of the differences between V4R4 and V4R5, but an unprejudiced
> factual comparison of the AS/400 with its competition. 
> 
> IBM provides  IBM AS/400e Brand Overview Guided Tour
> <http://www.as400.ibm.com/overview/tourindex.htm> (what a mouthfull!).
> Whilst it provides many excellent points, I do not think that it provides
> an overview that will inspire NT or Unix users to jump ship. Unless they
> get something positive from the top level, they may not be bothered to
> navigate through the links.  If, like most of the rest of the world, you
> knew nothing about the AS/400, would this opening page compel you to
> investigate further? 
> 
> For instance, in the first sentence it refers to 600,000 systems sold  If
> you have large numbers of small servers in your company and do not realise
> that one AS/400 might replace the lot, then you may not be impressed. You
> might well dismiss IBM's claim that the AS/400 is the world's most popular
> multiuser busines computer out of hand and read no further.  You might be
> more impressed by it being installed in 98% of Fortune 500 companies as
> stated in the second sentence, but the competition can probably make
> similar claims these days. 
> 
> BTW, I thought that 700,000 systems had been sold - what is the correct
> number?. 
> 
> What do others think?  Is there a better link? 
> 
> If there is no other link and, like me, you think the IBM link above is
> less than perfect, should we together create a document that we can all
> use?  If this is the only choice, and people post their bullet points -
> not essays - on the list (or send them to me direct), I would be willing
> to pull them together into a finished document which can be further
> refined over time.  I am thinking of a two or three page summary that
> would explain what makes the AS/400 stand out in a crowd. Since we are all
> bursting with ideas about why the AS/400 is so good, it may not be easy to
> distill these into a succinct synopsis. 
> 
> If people think that there is also a need for something more detailed,
> then this might be done as a second stage. 
> 
> It might also be good to provide some links to AS/400 successes - such as
> the reported migration from 23 AS/400's to 1600 NT Servers at Microsoft
> and then back again to 23 AS/400's.   I would be willing to put up links
> to such stories or the stories themsleves provided that they can be
> substantiated fully. 
> 
> We shouldn't have to do IBM's job for them but ...! 
> 
> Your reactions please. 
> 
> Rob Dixon 
> 
> ________________________________________________________ 
> 
> Erros plc 
> 
> 44 (0) 1844 239 339 
> 
> <http://www.erros.co.uk> - The AS/400 Neural Database for the Internet 
> 
> _________________________________________________________ 
>  
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