RE: New names -- MIDRANGE-L

Buck, I always respect your opinions.

>1) Most good applications are not ported to multiple platforms, or if
>they are, the "native" platform is always seen as the premier system.

Is this true even today?  Have not several of the large ERP vendors ported
their packages to various platforms?  Or, to tackle the "premier" argument,
would not a decision maker with knowledge of the superiority of AS/400-iSeries
consider those packages for which the AS/400 is not the "premier" system?  If
not, why would the package vendors *ever* port anything?

>Witness Word for Mac.

You would dare use a Micro$oft product for this argument?!?!? <g>

> >what is a "great program"?
>My opinion: One that tens of thousands of people can readily name.  Word,

Buck, I think the word you're looking for is "popular", not "great".
Especially when it comes to Microsoft products.  For me, "greatness" has to go
beyond popularity.  A great software product must also do what it was intended
to do without causing problems, without puking all over the system while
attempting to do simple tasks, etc.

Hmmm, can you tell I've had my fair share of pain using Microsoft products?

Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952

-------------------------- Original Message --------------------------
>IMO, companies do NOT choose to buy AS/400-iSeries over other platforms for
>"great" programs, primarily because I think most good applications are
ported
>to multiple platforms nowadays, but rather they choose AS/400-iSeries
because
>it is a rock-solid platform with a damned good OS that hardly ever goes
down
>and, oh yes, it is one of the platforms that happens to run the software
>package they're interested in.  (O.K., maybe not necessarily in that order
of
>priority.)

With the greatest of respect I disagree on several points.

1) Most good applications are not ported to multiple platforms, or if they
are, the "native" platform is always seen as the premier system.  Witness
Word for Mac.
2) Software sales drive the hardware/OS sales.  It was true in the 80's and
is true today.  Thousands of accountants walked into their local computer
store and said "I want to buy Lotus.  Sell me whatever computer runs it."
They did not choose hardware and then ask what software can run on it.

>what is a "great program"?

My opinion: One that tens of thousands of people can readily name.  Word,
1-2-3 and Quake meet this criteria.  No matter how good they are, Code/400,
DBU and neither Visual RPG do.  Nobody buys an AS/400 because they can run
Turnover on it.

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
"Nothing is so firmly believed as
 that which we least know" -- Michel Montaigne
Visit the Midrange archives at http://www.midrange.com
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