RE: Thats all folks! -- MIDRANGE-L

Many questions from One Joe.....

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.

I stand by my previous spout on the subject....

> 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'.

As business decisions are increasingly made and shaped by non-business
types (e.g. bean counters) you'll continue seeing the dilution of
'proprietary' in favor of 'open'.

I'll give you this----there are no true 'open' systems, but many vendors
looking to sell them.

I haven't seen many business problems solved by computers....have seen
many solved by applications.  It's the apps that'll drive the market,
notta lotta apps for the 400, you figure it out....my hp_buddies lurking
about will confirm these exact threads swirling about for years and
years....we know how it ended up for the 3000.

Hoping it ends differently for the iSeries,
Al Karman
Director of Information Technology
Lady Remington Jewelry
alk@ladyremingtonjewelry.com
630.860.3323

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
[mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com] On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 2:12 PM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: 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>.

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