Re: Biggest issue facing YOUR IBM i shop?

Absolutely correct, It's the attitude! Nobody said you couldn't do cool stuff in V4R5 and in fact some did! The issue is about all the cool stuff you CAN do and how that's getting better and better! Every release adds many things, every new hardware release makes it more cost effective and faster. So let's focus on the problems we have and the capabilities we have and continue to get, and Take Care of Business.

For those that have old apps they need to keep running do that and enhance and extend and expand as the business needs.

For those that don't like the old system, don't mention it. Just keep pointing out what it can do, and how it fits what the business needs.

Sadly for some the name is the biggest issue facing the IBM i shop! For others though business issues far outweigh and we need to put the name behind us and focus on them!

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 8/12/2013 10:31 PM, John Yeung wrote:

I can't believe I'm letting myself get sucked into this, but:

I promise you, it's not the name.

Let me repeat that, because I cannot stress this enough:

It. Is. Not. The. Name.

Should we all do a better job of educating others? Yes, of course.

But the name is not the problem. I mean, it might be *a* problem, but
it sure as hell is not *the* problem. There are folks who don't know
what an AS/400 is, don't know what an iSeries is, and don't know what
an IBM i is. They don't even know enough about the AS/400 to even
have the idea (rightly or wrongly) that it is an outdated platform.

Conversely, almost anyone with even a modicum of knowledge about the
IBM i knows its AS/400 roots. Some of these folks have a *good*
impression of the AS/400. They *like* the i *because* it is the
latest successor to the AS/400. Others don't like the AS/400, and by
association don't like the i.

If you pin your education campaign (to "outsiders") on the name thing,
you will look like you are slapping "IBM i" lipstick on the AS/400
pig. I swear. (And if you pin your education campaign to "insiders"
on the name thing, you will look like a pedantic... um, well, let's
just say you'll look unnecessarily pedantic.)

Educate people by showing (not just telling) what the i can do. Or
what the AS/400 can do for that matter. (I know someone using
iSeriesPython very productively on his V4R5 machine. And I did not
mix up the 4 and the 5. I know others using iSeriesPython on modern i
boxes.)

I'm not saying that we should be sloppy with the name. But the degree
to which some people harp on the name and go on and on and on is
really not helping (see lipstick, pig, pedant).

John


P.S. I personally have nothing against pigs.