Re: Developing for IBM i: Why Does It Need To Be So Hard?

In addition to PartnerWorld, IBM is working with a team of us to create www.iDevCloud.com. We expect to be live this month to provide on-line access to shared OR DEDICATED partitions. We will offer multiple O/S versions including the most current and ALL IBM software (Including the C Compiler :-) ) . As each release becomes available we'll have it. We will have a bunch of options as well. Because we are hosting it you don't have to have space, power, cooling, PTFs and all that. Out target price for the single developer is "Lower than your cable bill."

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
Chief Mad Scientist
Frankeni Technology Consulting, LLC
lbolhuis@xxxxxxxxxxxx



On 7/2/2010 8:56 PM, Rich Loeber wrote:

Eric,

In IBM's defense, they do have a very good program for developers
in their ParterWorld program. I've been a member for years as an
individual. In fact, under this program I'm now in the process of
obtaining a new Power i system to replace my i5. All I'm paying is a
lease payment (on very favorable terms) for the hardware and IBM is
tossing in a ton of software (list price in excess of $60k) for FREE. In my book, that's a very good deal.

The only catch is that you have to have at least one viable product
under development with a plan for introducing it in the marketplace in
a fairly short period of time. This is IBM's way of making sure that
they don't get taken advantage of and in my opinion it is not a lot
for them to ask.

In my case, for a monthly payment of less that $200, I get a brand
new system and a ton of software to work with. We've been qualified
for ParterWorld for Developers for a long time, but IBM still keeps
after us to maintain and update the products that we continue to
develop so that we can continue to qualify.

I know that Garry's situation may be a bit different, but I think
all he needs to do to qualify is work up some of his ideas for
products (and he has several already, I've been working with him on a
few) to IBM's satisfaction and he can easily qualify. Maybe they do
things differently in the UK?

Rich Loeber
Kisco Information Systems
http://www.kisco.com
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