Re: IBM investment in i

Paul,

You sound really disappointed about the merger of "i" and "p". You sound betrayed that IBM is investing most of it's development budget in cross-platform tools and technologies. But your allegations about IBM neglecting IBM i sound really vague. What was your vision for IBM i? Did the merger of "i" and "p" dash your hopes that IBM would develop a native GUI, and redesign IBM i to compete more effectively against AIX? If that was your vision then you set yourself up for disappointment.

You're right that IBM has morphed into a services company. The IBM i native virtual machine isn't getting the attention that cross-platform technologies are getting. Developer tools, languages, and runtime environments are are being unbundled from the operating system, and moved outside Rochester.

My answer to all this was to create an ILE framework for Web applications and switch from 5250 based user interfaces to browsers. There may not be a big future in DDS defined printer and spool files, or the WRKSPLF command, but there's a future in GUI reports, generated from RPG. So that's where I'm focusing my attention.

Now more than any other time, the future of the IBM i native virtual machine is more in the hands of ISVs and IT organizations adoption and adaptation of Web technologies and related services. And that's something that even IBM can't control. In other words, it's up to people like you and me.

Nathan.