Re: Intro AS/400

[Trevor Perry <trevor@xxxxxxxxxx>]

If Kevin is new to the iCommunity, he should be looking at the IBM i
operating system, which at release 6.1 will most likely be running on a
Power Systems server. The best OS on the best server on the planet.

If he is using V5R4 or before, he will be using an earlier version of IBM i
- which is called i5/OS, and earlier OS/400. And, his server could be an
AS/400, iSeries, System i5 or System i - all of which can run one of the
versions of the OS. All applications written for any version of the OS will
be able to run on the IBM i OS.

In the meantime, he should look for information on the web using all those
names, as some of the IBM i community is still posting those names to the
internet. The more common usages are AS/400 and iSeries, and while these are
names of servers, they are used to reference the hardware, the OS, the
applications, the programming languages, etc..

Welcome, Kevin.


On 12/6/08 7:30 PM, "Norm Dennis" <nhdennis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Well firstly, it's not an AS/400 it's an E Server I Series, er , i Series,
> um, System i, oh stuff it, Trevor can you explain?
>
> Norm Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Kevin Bowling
> Sent: Sunday, 7 December 2008 6:10 AM
> To: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Intro AS/400
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I am a bit of an IBM fan and have used most of their product line (PCs,
> RS/6000, even 390/z - see my pages: http://ps-2.kev009.com:8081/) for
> fun and work.  However, I have yet to try an AS/400.  I see them come
> through the local computer recycler and sell on eBay cheaply enough and
> would like to pick one up for home tinkering.  The goal is to simply
> learn and play with another computing platform.
>
> Tips on what models to look out for would be helpful.  Obviously, I
> don't need a lot of compute power nor current hardware/software.  The
> one requirement I do have is to be able to setup/interact with the
> system over Ethernet rather than fool with something like Twinax.
>
> I also see the potential problem of finding a system with software,
> since I assume it is not cheap to get a hold of os400.  Any comments or
> suggestions would be appreciated.. as you can tell I am a total newbie
> to AS/400s.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kevin