RE: Thats all folks!

> From: Al Karman
>
> Does Joe Work For IBM?...]:-)
>
> I may be missing some point or other here, but we ARE talking about
> hardware and not a lifestyle commitment.
>
> Great box, good box, crappy box....irrelevant.  It's proprietary in an
> 'open' world and sadly will arrive at the same place as other fine
> proprietary systems.
>
> It's always been about $$$, these days more so than ever
> before.....let's not delude ourselves into thinking there's any great
> flight towards 'quality'.

Al, you may be right.  But then again, this proprietary line of computers
has been alive and kicking since the 60's.  It has weathered several storms,
and I think that this "open" issue will be just another bump in the road.  I
could be wrong, of course, I've been wrong before.

"Open" world.  What does that mean?  Open as in hardware?  All hardware can
be bought from whatever vendor you want, and you just slap together a
system?  That MIGHT work with Linux, and almost certainly does not with
Windows.  Want to see my latest fun with installing Windows on current
hardware?  Check out my most recent column at MCPressOnline:

http://www.mcpressonline.com/mc?1@38.gab5aIOu4LS.14400@.6ae4fa66

Near the bottom is a blow-by-blow account of me installing Windows on a
brand new machine.

Or perhaps open as in the operating system is open?  The only open operating
system I've worked with is Linux, although NetBSD is supposed to be pretty
nice as well.

Or do you mean applications written in a non-proprietary language?  If you
think you can write an entire ERP package in Java and SQL, have a go at it.
Nobody else seems to have done it.  Even Movex is RPG code converted to
Java.  I'm pretty safe in saying that there are very few OO experts out
there who are APICS certified, which means there aren't many OO folks who
know ERP.

Or do you mean open as in "any UI"?  Because right now there is no "UI
independent" software language.  You have to at least write for some version
of the UI you plan to support, be it a browser or X-Windows or some thick
client PC variant.

So, my question is this: what part of open do you consider necessary to your
applications that is not satisfied by the AS/400?  My guess is that the only
issue is that the hardware is the AS/400, and you want to run on cheap
Wintel boxes.  If that's what you want - that is, to run your business
applications on hopped up commodity PCs - then I think you're going to get
what you pay for.  And it's my firm belief that there is still a large
market of people who think that's a darned silly way to run a business.
These people run banks and hospitals and factories and casinos.  These
people use AS/400's.

And no, I don't work for IBM.  But they ought to pay me, don't you think?
If they worked half as hard at marketing the box as I do, they'd sell
thousands of them.

Mr. Haines, you got a position available?  <smile>

Joe Pluta
"AS/400 Publicist at Large"

And after this holiday season, the operative word seems to be "large"
<smirk>.