Future plans for i5/OS

For some light reading read
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/support/iseries/planning/upgrade/v5r4/planstmts.html

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i5/OS Support of Selected iSeries Models, January 2006
IBM plans for i5/OS V5R4 to be the final release supported on iSeries 
models 270, 820, 830, 840, SB2, and SB3. The next release is planned to be 
supported on models 520, 550, 570, 595, 800, 810, 825, 870, and 890.
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iSeries Access Family, January 2006
IBM plans to discontinue shipping the WebSphere Host Access Transformation 
Services Limited Edition (HATS LE) product from the iSeries Access Family 
on May 1, 2006.

HATS LE will continue to be serviced with iSeries Access Family (V5R3, 
V5R2) until these releases reach their end-of-service dates. Therefore 
users can continue using the current HATS LE product after May 1, 2006.

Suggested replacements:

- Use the 5250 emulator in iSeries Access for Web, delivered with the 
iSeries Access Family. Learn more about iSeries Access for Web at 
http://www.ibm.com/eserver/iseries/access/web. 
- Use the full WebSphere Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) 
application development product for extending legacy applications to the 
Web. Learn more about HATS at 
http://www.ibm.com/software/webservers/hats/. 
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iSeries Access for Windows Data Transfer for Excel, January 2006
IBM plans for iSeries Access for Windows V5R4 to be the final release to 
support Excel 95 and Excel 97 with the Data Transfer add-in support. Only 
Excel 2000, and later, will be supported for data transfers in the release 
after V5R4.

Suggested alternatives:
Upgrade to Excel 2000 or newer.
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Apache Tomcat, January 2006
IBM plans for i5/OS V5R4 to be the final release to ship Apache Tomcat 
(jsp/servlet) support in IBM HTTP Server which ships with i5/OS.

Suggested alternatives: 
1-Use WebSphere Application Server Express, which is shipped with i5/OS 
2-Use an open source version of Tomcat, which can be obtained from 
jakarta.apache.org 
Enhanced Netware Integration, January 2006
IBM plans for i5/OS V5R4 to be the final release to support Enhanced 
Netware Integration (5722-SS1 Option 25).
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Tivoli Management Agent, January 2006
IBM plans for i5/OS V5R4 to be the final release to include Tivoli 
Management Agent with i5/OS shipments.

Suggested alternatives:
Obtain the Tivoli Management Agent for i5/OS through Tivoli channels.
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S/36 and S/38 Environment, January 2006
IBM plans to continue supporting the S/36 and S/38 environment within 
i5/OS in the next release of i5/OS.

RPG & COBOL System/36 & System/38 compatible compilers, January 2006
IBM plans for WebSphere Development Studio for iSeries V5R4 to be the 
final release to ship and support the following S/36 and S/38 compiler 
options. V5R4 will be the final release to include these compilers in the 
SW Maintenance or SW Subscription contract.

5722-WDS Option 32 - System/36 Compatible RPG II
5722-WDS Option 33 - System/38 Compatible RPG III
5722-WDS Option 42 - System/36 Compatible COBOL
5722-WDS Option 43 - System/38 Compatible COBOL

Suggested alternatives:

1-IBM recommends migrating existing S/36 and S/38 environment applications 
to the integrated language environment (ILE) on i5/OS. 
2-The S/36 and S/38 compilers will be available as separate non-warranted 
PRPQs in the next release after V5R4. The PRPQs will not be covered by the 
SW Maintenance or SW Subscription contract. 

More information will be available at 
http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/iseries/ in the future. 
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Rob Berendt