RE: What's in a name?

And don't forget iSeries Navigator.

A related problem is that IBM is pressuring business partners to globally 
change "iSeries" to "System i" and "OS/400" to "i5/OS".  (One must conform in 
order to buy ad space in an IBM publication.)  For a training vendor like us, 
that is impossible.  We have to check thousands of screen displays in over 100 
courses to make sure that what we show agrees with reality, not what the IBM 
marketing department wishes to be the case.  It will happen, but it will take 
years.

Moreover, each edit needs some thought, and it's more than replacing "an 
iSeries" with "a System i" before doing "iSeries" to "System i.".  Supposedly, 
one reason for the name change was to emphasize the "system" aspects of our 
favorite computer.  However, I frequently used "iSeries system" in my writings 
when talking about a particular physical box.  But "System i system" is not 
pretty.  I'm telling my editors to use "System i server" or "the i5".  While 
this defeats the goal of IBM's marketing department, it doesn't make me look 
illiterate.

Over the long term, however, a family name like "System i" will be a big help.  
So that my courses do not become obsolete prematurely, I have always avoided 
using model numbers and have gone with the broadest name possible.  Yet IBM 
seems to be working against itself with "i5/OS".  I predict that all the system 
screens will be changed to "i5/OS" about the same time that i6/OS is released.

If anyone is listening, please, please change the operating system name to 
i/OS, OS4i, or some such.  Like the poor souls in Rochester, I feel like I'm 
spending more time editing than producing useful products.

Bill
William A. Hansen
Manta Technologies Inc.
Toll-free: (800) 406-2682
Direct: (847) 382-7189