RE: List of large iSeries companies

> From: David Delisi
> 
> There is nothing to spin here but your unabated and unnatural hate for
> anything Microsoft.

This is where you're simply wrong.  I'm on record all over the place as
saying I think Microsoft owns the desktop.  I adore Publisher; what an
incredibly well thought out piece of software.  On the other end of the
spectrum, I do hate the fact that Microsoft software has historically been
some of the buggiest commercial software ever delivered and in my opinion
has single-handedly significantly reduced the overall quality of software in
the world, primarily through brilliantly predatory marketing strategies.
But I don't consider that unnatural.

But let's hone the topic to what this forum is about: the midrange.  in the
particular area of Microsoft as business logic server, I think anybody who
says that a Windows server farm is cost-effective compared to an iSeries for
transaction-based processing is selling snake oil, and we can prove it over
and over again.  The Windows server platform CURRENTLY is simply not as
scalable or as stable as the iSeries.

And herein lies the point: if I have any "unabated and unnatural hate", it's
not for Microsoft; it's for people who try to sell the snake oil that
Windows server farms are logical replacements for the IBM midrange.  Let me
be clear: I have great respect for those who propose Microsoft solutions
where they make good business sense, and nothing but antipathy for those who
try to spin them where they don't belong.

Now, if Vista ever gets out the door and SQL Server 2005 provides the
stability of DB2/400 in the terabyte dataspace range and .NET provides the
appropriate libraries for developing robust business logic, then we can talk
again.  And listen carefully: I'm not saying it can't be done!  I've been
using Visual Studio for a few weeks now and I am impressed with its good
points (for instance, Microsoft has visual editing down to a science).  You
really ought to read my articles before you characterize me <grin>.  But the
reality TODAY is that for business logic processing a solid ILE RPG system
can blow the doors off of anything Microsoft has to offer, for a reasonably
close entry price point and with a much lower TCO.

Get your best Microsoft writer.  Sit them down to write something basic,
like an MRP generation or a finite forward scheduler.  My bet is any top
echelon RPG programmer can blow them away in time to market, quality and
performance.  Then make sure to run the thing on a billion record database
and tell me what the true hardware and support costs are.

On the other hand, sit someone down to write a thick client front end to a
web service, and a kid out of college can make it work with Microsoft before
an RPG programmer can figure out which tool to use.  And that perhaps is the
difference in market.  IBM still makes the very best compilers and operating
systems, while Microsoft makes the best end user tools, including
entry-level programming.

Joe