Re: AS/400

At 4:29 PM -0700 7/30/01, Chris Rehm wrote:
>Of course. This has always been the case. The difference being that before
>the eServer marketing and the new pricing structure you did not have the
>option of b). Now, that you have a new option, it seems like you are tending
>to agree with the competition.

    Not really, I know from experience how wrong the other platform 
(especially NT) solutions are likely to turn out, both in cost and 
functionality.  But who's really going to listen to the AS/400 guy 
when the other guys are all saying he's way off?

>Well, let's look at the iSeries market. Suppose IBM did not market the
>iSeries, and was still selling only the AS/400 as a green screen application
>server. What do you suppose they'd have to price it at to support the R&D
>etc. to keep it going? Do you feel it would be higher? Lower?

    My gut feeling is that the interactive users are being heavily 
taxed to subsidize development of the low-priced server models.  All 
of the R & D money is being spent on new server stuff, there is 
*zero* green-screen development going on.

    Show me what IBM has done for green-screen users lately to justify 
the premium price they have to pay.  Any SEU enhancements? 
OfficeVision come back to life?  New DDS keywords?

    It's all moot anyway.  Eventually there will not be enough 
green-screen users left to support server development, and IBM will 
have to find somewhere else to suck the money from.  But in the 
process they will have lost their most loyal and long-time customers. 
Literally thousands of them are already gone.

    Regards,

    - Lou Forlini
      Software Engineer
      System Support Products, Inc.

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