Re: Saving the System i: Fight Pervasive with Pervasive

On 12/11/06, albartell <albartell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I disagree Trevor.  We all know that it is too expensive for most anybody to
personally own an up to date System i5.  What Brian Kelly is talking about
could take an industry by storm.

from the article:
"...IBM has no model for pricing a single unit System i intended for
just one individual. How about $1,999 for 5 percent of the user
capacity of the $11,995 model? How about $999 for 1/100 the power of
the $20,000 unit? I have a few customers with the 30/600 CPW System i
who have a base approaching 100 green-screen users. So, for 1/100 of
the computing capability of this machine, how about a model for $999?
..."

This makes no sense to me. Kelly wants IBM to sell a geared down
desktop version of the geared down i5 520? I dont follow. Why are so
many IBM diehards resistant to user based pricing?

for $3,000 you can get a desktop p5:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/p/hardware/entry/185/70371d1a.html

enable the p5 to run i5/OS, AIX and Linux partitions. Charge $300 for
each i5/OS user on the system.

The author of the article
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh121106-story03.html lost all
credibility with me when he wrote this:

"...Though it is not as bad as it once was, my Windows XP machine
still locks occasionally, forces me to lose my desktop data, and
causes me to endure its less-than-delightful reboot process. ..."

I doubt that XP "occasionally" locks up on him like he says it does.
The XP I have been using the last year is an outstanding performing
OS. It does not crash, it boots fast, very easy to install software,
the new IE7 has great fonts, ...

I think one area he missed is if IBM were
to modify RPG to be a first class language by taking out some archaic
features (i.e. fixed format) and add a few essential features to draw the
masses (i.e. something akin to a smart client for in-house users, and
seamless browser interfacing for external customers) - then watch the
customers flow in!  Look at how many are jumping ship to .NET even though
they may not have ANY .NET developers in house.  People are excited about
.NET because you can install Visual Studio and have your first DB driven web
app up and running in less than 1 hour.  Imagine if you didn't even have to
install the environment and it instead was completely ready for you to
develop - again, watch the customer flow in!

sounds great but I dont think IBMs checkbook is into it.  I encourage
IBM to do what it does best - build sophisticated, high performance
computer hardware.

-Steve