Re: Midrange Computing is liquidating.

Well, I'd say that is wholly accurate. IBM is no doubt charging every dime
they can get for the machines they are selling. They also know that they can
get more since the AS/400 installed base would have to face significant
costs to move to a different platform. This is the difficulty with dealing
with a proprietary system.

On the other hand, I fully believe that IBM does reinvest money into the
AS/400. Improving the technology well above the standard in the marketplace.
While many people feel they could choose better where IBM should be spending
their R&D money, they are complaining while using rock solid implementations
on a 64 bit processor. They have been able to upgrade in a comparatively
painless fashion since the 8 bit S/32 and S/34 days.

IBM is far from being a perfect vendor. But they are the best available
choice. It could be that IBM doesn't see a place for proprietary systems in
the future and so isn't making the iSeries "strategic." If they are "letting
it die" (which is not what I believe) then they are milking the cow they
raised. Customers need to make decisions for their own benefit and should
never count on a vendor to sacrifice profit on their behalf.

Chris Rehm
javadisciple@earthlink.net
If you believe that the best technology wins the
marketplace, you haven't been paying attention.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Neil Palmer" <neilp@dpslink.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 11:45 PM
Subject: Re: Midrange Computing is liquidating.


> Maybe not "killing off" intentionally, but certainly milking the installed
> customer base for all it's worth with the pricing of the interactive
> "features" on new systems.
>
> ...Neil
>
>
>
>
>
> "Chris Rehm" <javadisciple@earthlink.net>
> Sent by: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
> 2001/07/27 22:09
> Please respond to MIDRANGE-L
>
>
>         To:     <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
>         cc:
>         Subject:        Re: Midrange Computing is liquidating.
>
>
> You know, I have a friend who thinks that Prince Charles is a
> shapeshifting
> alien planted here on earth and that Reagan was replaced by a clone during
> his time in office. I'm sure he could be convinced of this.
>
> Of course, you'll need to come up with a way to link in Cobol, since it
> ties
> other IBM legacy systems back, so you'll have to figure out a way that
> they'll be killing off that, too. And you'll have to explain why everyone
> at
> IBM is so stupid they think killing of the revenue source they have is the
> "way to survive."

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