Re: ibm i development budget

[Pat Barber <mboceanside@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Those are all interesting comments. Some are true and some are half truths
fed by rumors. I can say this.

IBM has a very significant installed base of very large I series customers.

The vast majority are on maintenace and the vast majority have been 
midrange
customers for many years.

I do not believe that a business, no matter how stupid, will just up and 
walk
away from that. Those large customers have a very powerful voice on what
happens at IBM. They do continue to do things that make no sense at all, but
they do continue to make money. The customers have many dollars tied up in
software that only runs on the I platform.

Will this entire giant base of customers just decide one day that it all 
needs to
be on a windows/unix platform ? I think not.

I also think that since IBM is the "only" midrange platform, why would 
they
suddenly decide to exit that market place.

Here's a good rumor for you... the next thing is MVS on the I  Series.

The rumor mill is always interesting, but it still remains a rumor mill.


Don wrote:

> There MAY be a 7.1 but not many people are expect much after that(hell
> (IBM'ers and high level insiders) weren't expecting anything after
> 6.3!)...and yes, it'll be around for a while, but then, so are OS/2, NT,
> etc...anyone wanna bet their mortgage on them?  Anyone remember what
> happened to the S/36 environment once IBM wanted to get rid of it?   Or what
> HP has done to MPE in favor of a higher services generator like HP/UX? 
>
>
>