Re: Anybody know the record for the longest an AS/400 has been contiuously up?

After rereading all the comments in this thread, I understand that some of Terry's were of the type that might foment prejudice against Windows. Buck and others were right too about that being counter-productive.

Not an excuse, but the same type of prejudice is being fomented against IBM i on Power in various circles; mostly by those who have become disaffected by the platform for one reason or another, who now offer services to migrate off IBM i.

Although IBM is a respected name, just about anywhere one mentions IBM's midrange brands, the response is a collective, meah? This platform needs and deserves more respect.

It's hardly relevant to compare IBM i on Power to Windows desktops; one is a server, the other a client. Similarly, it's not very practical to compare IBM i on Power to "appliance" servers, except to discuss the merits of server consolidation vs. distributed architecture. The world by in large has moved to distributed server architecture largely due to Microsoft's influence, which has raised the cost and complexity of computing appallingly.

It's quite relevant to compare IBM i on Power to Windows and MS SQL Server and other DBMS platforms. I completely agree that platforms should be compared on technical merit. Most IBM i opponents hate that, preferring only to argue on the basis of popularity.

-Nathan

----- Original Message -----
From: John Jones <chianime@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc:
Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 1:28 PM
Subject: Re: Anybody know the record for the longest an AS/400 has been contiuously up?

Re: Badmouthing: See Terry's comments early in the thread.

I've been trying to reinforce what Buck said.  Windows is here and it's
more than good enough for the vast majority of businesses.  It's reliable
enough, stable enough, and believe it or not secure enough (when configured
properly, which every platform requires for "secure enough" operation).  It
also scales both out & up on modern hardware.

That's not promoting MS; just stating modern IT reality.  The same
statements can be made about Unix & Linux.

For the group, we are naturally biased towards out platform of choice and
there's nothing wrong with that.  But promoting IBM i needs to be done
based on the platform's strengths and with the understanding that the
competition is not idle.  That yesterday's weaknesses probably don't apply
today.  And that by most requirements that matter to a business, Windows is
competitive.  Not necessarily superior, but competitive.  IBM i has to win
in that environment, and I'm glad you're having success.