RE: Wow. -- MIDRANGE-L

> From: Joel Cochran
> 
> Please define "jumps ship".  This is not some "Survivor" style contest
> to see who can be last standing on the 400!  I am an ISV: because my
> customers are local governments, I have precious little control over
> what platforms they require.  I get fewer and fewer opportunities to
> even BID on projects because the terms are already set in stone, and
> more and more those terms require SQLServer.  As I see it, I have two
> choices: I can be an iSeries loyalist and sink, or I can develop
> alternatives.  I choose to develop alternatives, and I'm doing so with
> IBM supplied tools such as the .Net Managed Provider.  One of my goals
> is to help my customers keep the iSeries a viable part of their IT
> structure, but my primary goal is to stay in business.

Joel, I feel for ya, buddy.  I understand the situation you are in, and
I can hardly blame you.  The fact that you are in a vertical niche and
your niche is moving to Microsoft sucks bigtime.  Would I rather you
held out and shone as a bastion of shining iSeries sanity within the
bleak night of Microsoft madness?  Sure I would!  But you gotta make a
living, as you say.

And really, I'm not even specifically targeting those folks who have
created a second version of their software that will run on a
non-iSeries platform.  Were I an iSeries customer and I had a choice
between an dedicated iSeries product and someone who plays in multiple
arenas, I might choose the dedicated iSeries vendor, but that's a
different issue.  Indeed, some people scared about the future of the
iSeries might choose the vendor with a portable solution.  But moving to
Microsoft because you're worried about a proprietary solution is kind of
like going to Iraq to get away from urban violence.  But in any event,
ISVs forced to provide secondary platform solutions are not the ones I
worry about.

No, the folks I think are weasels are the ones who are trying to move
existing iSeries clients off of the box, or who are willing to tell a
prospective client to go with Windows instead of the iSeries.  I have
yet to see a good technical argument as to why you would choose Windows
over iSeries, so I think anyone who doesn't firmly tell a prospect that
the iSeries is the better product is indeed an opportunist of the worst
sort.  If, however, the prospect tells you to go hang and wants a
Windows solution (or a Java solution, or a LAMP solution) and you can
provide it, then more power to you.  But even then, it's a decision that
brings into play your own personal ethics.  Maybe you can make money
selling Windows solutions.  You can also make money selling crack.
Sometimes making money isn't enough of a reason, Joel.

And the iSeries vendors who are joining this MAP, especially when it was
originally created by ASNA and Microsoft specifically to move people off
of the iSeries, well I believe there's a special ring of Hell for those
folks.

Joe