Re: Wow

> message: 4
> date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 18:59:58 -0500
> from: "Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> subject: RE: Wow.
> 
> 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.

LOL, no kidding!  I have to admit I haven't heard the argument about the
proprietary solution. 

> 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.

Surely you don't question a developer's ethics just because they develop in 
Windows?  
I assure you, my personal ethics are completely intact.  And this is the 
problem: 
you start off saying "more power to you" and then you equate me to a crack 
dealer 
for doing so!

"Go Hang" is what I've been doing.  I can't tell you how many RFPs we
have received that ended up in the trash because the first requirement
states unequivocally "Product must run on Microsoft SQL Server".  It's
not opportunistic of me to give the client what they demand.  

> 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.

Well, I'm not going to be religious about it.  Decisions must be made,
free market economy and all that.  Do I want to see people move off the
iSeries?  Of course not, but if they insist to change against my better
judgement, I'll do what I can to provide them a solution.  At least they
would still be supporting an iSeries supporter!

As for ASNA, I bought their product, I went for the training.  I'll tell
anyone the same thing I told them: there isn't much RPG about
VisualRPG.  I'm not using it and I didn't renew it, mainly because IBM
now has the Managed Provider.  I'm not trying to bash ASNA, they were
great people to work with, I just don't need their product.

Joel Cochran