RE: Goodbye/400

[Jim Damato <jdamato@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Leif:
>What is interesting is the spin IBM tries to put on this. Quoting
>from the press:
>
>"BM's 5250 interactive green-screen software, used to support
>RPG and COBOL programs, has been de-activated on these
>three Model 820 machines, and that has nothing to do with Linux.
>Green-screen applications were not supported on these machines
>when they were announced last April, because they are intended
>to support Java or C/C++ applications or those that rely on SQL
>and Web interfaces.

To me, this is the most honest that IBM has ever been about iSeries servers,
5250, CFINT, etc.  A huge portion of the OS functionality has been disabled.
They don't say that the functionality isn't there any more, or that you'd
need a hardware card to run it -- it's just de-activated.  And they say that
these Linux servers are sold for a specific scope of work, so the green
screen functionality is not supported.  It's actually quite reasonable.

If server models and interactive feature had been presented this way back in
1996-1998 I might not be so annoyed about the concept now -- particularly if
green screen support were licensed instead of misdirected to a hardware
feature.

-Jim

James P. Damato
Manager - Technical Administration
Dollar General Corporation
<mailto:jdamato@dollargeneral.com>