RE: Lower End AS/400s -- MIDRANGE-L

Hey you two...play nice...

The AS/400-iSeries is a niche player...always has been, always will be,
regardless of the integration spin IBM places on it. I've worked on these
boxes since they came out, and everything else IBM has in the midrange arena
for over 20 years. IBM's adherent companies love the 400, but due to lack of
marketing/exposure/perceived value - or whatever - companies embrace other
systems more readily. TCO and remarkable operating system and all the stuff
in one box is great...but...others in the industry don't agree. This is
shown by market share and sales. That's reality...

From: "Joe Pluta" <joepluta@PlutaBrothers.com>
Reply-To: midrange-l@midrange.com
To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Subject: RE: Lower End AS/400s
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 11:16:36 -0600

> From: Justin Haase
>
> Easy killer, I was just saying that nothing is perfect.  I like
> OS/400 too.

No, actually, I'd rather not take it easy.  It's just that sort of attitude
that has gotten us into the straits we're in.

By not standing up for our jobs, for our platform, for our users, by not
putting our collective feet down and DEMANDING that IT management take into
account TCO, reliability and all the other things that make the AS/400 so
powerful, we have instead implicitly encouraged the proliferation of
error-prone networks of cheap, inferior machines.

Guilt by omission can be every bit as damaging as guilt by commission, and
we're living proof of that as we reap the results of the "let it be"
attitude of the last decade or so.

People with no IT experience are making IT decisions.  People who don't
understand the cost benefits of data processing are assessing the value of
what we do.  Nobody is standing up for the end user, or for reliability, or
for stability, or for legacy reuse.  And those of us who know these things,
we're sitting around with our thumbs strategically positioned while we
whine
that there's nothing we can do.

"Easy killer"?

Heck no, it ain't me killing the box.  I'm out there, every day, shouting
to
whomever I can get to listen that the AS/400 is BETTER than Windows, BETTER
than Unix, BETTER than any other platform.  I can prove it, and I will to
anyone who is willing to make the effort to listen.  Unfortunately, most
people have spent the last decade taking it easy, and this is where THAT
particular attitude has led us.

You want to take it easy?  Go ahead.  But don't later complain about how IT
management isn't making the right decisions.  They aren't because you're
not
telling them what the right decisions are.  You're taking it easy.  Which
one of is is killing the box?

Joe

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