RE: [RPGIV] AS/400 is dead long live iSeries? (fwd)

["Urbanek, Marty" <Marty_Urbanek@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>    I guess a lot has changed, because the process really wasn't that
>bad when I went through it, especially when you realize you're
>dealing with IBM...

That's exactly it - I don't want to have to realize I'm dealing with IBM. I
want IBM to realize that it has to encourage people to develop for their
platforms by making it easy and inexpensive. In this respect I think they
are still acting like the old IBM of 20 years ago, thinking that they have
some kind of monopoly and that o whatever is necessary for the privelege of
writing software for their platform(s). 

There are two standards of comparison here. One is comparing to the
historical IBM and concluding that things are much better than they used to
be, which is certainly true. However, I am comparing to PCs and M$, and
concluding that IBM still has a long way to go to even get in the ballpark
of attracting new blood/brains.

I specifically said upstart and mentioned college students because I am not
talking about someone who already has several products. If you just have an
idea, or maybe just the desire to experiment, would you still be willing to
make the committment to produce a product in 6 or 12 months (whatever the
applicable time frame)? Not me. To me that is prohibitive. Those timesharing
services look pretty good as an alternative, but they could never turn you
loose the way you could be on your own machine.

I am glad to see the success that several of you guys have had, and the
response from Joe Pluta that said he was recently able to qualify as a
consultant. That implies not even committing to create a product. That gives
me renewed hope. I don't want to drag you guys into too many specifics, but
for those that have been there, may I ask if you were able to get the 1%
hardware lease and free software even at the lowest Pwd membership tier
(member level) with just the Software and Services value option?

Thanks,
-Marty
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