Re: NT vs AS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

Hi John,

Welcome to the discussion.

When I read what you've written about joblogs, error reporting, hardware
independence and so forth, I feel like we're kindred spirits. :)  These are
the things that all of us on this list appreciate so much about this great
system. No one is arguing that NT or the random command name generator known
as *nix is a better overall system than OS/400. What we're (sorry, what
*I'm*) saying, is "at what price greatness"?

There comes a point where the TCO numbers that used to work in favour of the
AS/400 begin to work against it. At the low end of the market --$100K or
less-- we've already reached that point. Maybe IBM's unofficial propaganda
machine --Gartner-- hasn't declared it yet, but as Jim would say, "I don't
need no stinkin' study" to know it's true. However, this is an artificial
situation created by IBM Corporate, not by the technology.

John, I know you as a tireless champion of this platform. I've read your
comments on this list, and on many different forums across the net. I
suspect that you're one of the ones who won't let go of that black box in
the corner unless they pry it from your cold, dead fingers. :)  I respect
that, and even admire it to a certain degree, but I don't share your level
of commitment. The reason for that is because I don't see IBM sharing your
level of commitment. At best, they've been sending mixed signals for a long
time now.

Being a pragmatist, I don't believe that you can be effective with your
ground roots marketing campaign while IBM actively works against you. They
freely dispense the rhetoric, and occasionally throw the dog an iSeries
Nation bone, but these things are overshadowed by the more significant
actions of their marketing department.

My own responsibility is not to IBM, but to my employer. I'm paid to manage
the IT resources within our organization. That means that I need to strike a
careful balance by keeping one foot in the stable technology of the past in
order to minimize costs, yet keep the other foot far enough forward on the
bleeding edge that we don't get caught with our pants down during a
technology shift. I can't allow personal biases to cloud my judgement. The
fact that I dislike *nix is something that I must put aside while evaluating
which technology will provide the best ROI for the organization. If I were a
consultant, I'd have the same responsibility to my clients.

Nowadays, it's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that
*nix, and in many cases W2K, haven proven to be the right tool for many a
job. Jobs which, traditionally, I would have delegated to the AS/400. Those
platforms are continually maturing, while the AS/400 struggles with it's
identity, and it's associated place in the market.


John Taylor
Canada


----- Original Message -----
From: <jpcarr@tredegar.com>

>
> I don't know about disk drive prices and the like,   however the things I
> do like are;
>
> Joblogs,    If a program fails or abends,  I got one.    Where is that
> sucker on a Win box?  Anybody know?  I've been looking for years to find
> what the heck went wrong when I have to literally turn off the power
> because the OS is stuck and will not respond.   When I repower it,  it has
> the nerve to tell me that "System was abnormally terminated,  Next time
> Please power down correctly"     Doncha love that message?
>
> Where is the equivalent of  the message   CPI5FD13  on a Win or *nix  box?
> I got this message a lot a couple of years ago.   Never seen it's counter
> part on a Win or *nix  platform and I have been in many similar situations
> on Win box when I wish I would have seen it.
> BTW,  if you are not familiar with  CPI5D13  the message text is  "
> Converting *PGM     &1 in library  &2 to 64-bit RISC"     Now I have gone
> from 16 bit Win to 32 bit Win and if I remember right,   I had to buy (For
> every desktop)  complete new applications to get them to 32 bit.
>
> The machine command set.  I still love the simplicity and elegance of the
> DSP, WRK, CRT,  structure of the command set.  The commands I have seen
> from *nix or Win have no rhyme or reason to me.  I truly believe that they
> have a "Random Name Generator" .
>
> Now John,    I highly respect you and your opinions.   I can't argue with
> you.
>
> You are right about the Interactive penalty.    If I were to try to
> understand IBM's logic for it,   (and looking back on how FAST we Midrange
> people are to change ie Sys/36,  RPGIII, etc)     I would say that IBM is
> applying a "Cattle Prod"  type of coaxing to move us from Interactive to
> Java?  and JSP, etc.
>
> These are personal (and yes probably emotional)  preferences.   So,  I
have
> no other defense for them.
>
> Respectfully
> John Carr
>


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