Re: AW: End of the road for 7.1?

[Bradley Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx>]

My point was, what holds you back from supporting a newer release?  One of
the biggest selling points of the IBM i is (or was) "forwards"
compatibility.

Is because you use a add-in or ported procedure that won't work on a new OS
version?

I've been an ISV with thousands of customers all of the world for over 20
years.  Never had that problem supporting a new release (unless there was
an OS bug, but that's a different story).

I've always been able to support not only old releases, but the latest and
greatest.

We do draw the line, though.  Right now it's V5R2/4.  Soon it will be
V6R1.  Some newer applications may be V7Rx (working on some new things).

I still have people at least a couple times a month ask for V4Rx (and we
can provide one that works if they really want).

We recently announced to our customers the end of support for V5Rx is
coming soon.  Mainly because a lot of our applications use SSL and for PCI
reasons a lot of things are changing for SSL that won't be able to be
supported in V5R4.

If someone requires an update on that old release they'll simply pay an
hourly rate to get the fix/update... that is if it's something we feel is
worthwhile to do (and our V5R4 machine is still working, which it probably
will be!  lol).

But, I've always stated our software works on the latest OS level... That's
the easy part.  At least for in my case :)

Brad
www.bvstools.com

On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 7:14 AM, <JWGrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>    I could not agree more with Rob last comment
>    As to the customers who need duplicate work due to the fact that they
> are
>    running older releases of the OS ... they should be charged MUCH higher
>     maintenance fees and for any custom changes to the ISVs product to
> cover
>    any duplicate work and  higher support costs
>    Sent from my iPhone
>    On Apr 8, 2016, at 01:13, Birgitta Hauser <Hauser@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>    >>> I don't understand how ISVs don't support a newer release.
>    > It is sometimes really hard if you are an ISV.
>    > I'm working for a small software house and we have to serve a lot of
>    > customers who are still! On V5R4 releases.
>    >
>    > Last Summer (2015) we finally! decided (after long discussions) to
> only
>    > support release 7.1 and higher.
>    > And with this decision we also decided write everything in RPG free
>    format
>    > (including free H, D, P specs) and exploit the enormous enhancements
> in
>    SQL
>    > (in 7.1 up to 2 TRs back) .
>    > Don't ask how often we/I have to write 2 versions of a program  and
> how
>    > often we have to reinvent the wheel because there is any customer who
>    wants
>    > to have any enhancement for an older release.
>    > And don't ask how often I have to justify this duplicate work (i.e.
> "Why
>    you
>    > had to write it in full FREE format, why did you use new SQL functions
>    > etc.")
>    > I think we may be the exception in doing duplicate work!
>    > Duplicate work is "wasted" money and who pays for it?
>    > And for small software houses every customer counts!
>    >
>    > It seems sometimes to be a doom loop: Software houses cannot upgrade,
>    > because there are some customers still having old releases that have
> to
>    be
>    > supported. Customers cannot upgrade because the software vendors do
> not
>    > support the newer releases.
>    >
>    > Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards
>    >
>    > Birgitta Hauser
>    >
>    > "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."
>    (Les
>    > Brown)
>    > "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." (Derek Bok)
>    > "What is worse than training your staff and losing them? Not training
>    them
>    > and keeping them!"
>    >
>    > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>    > Von: MIDRANGE-L [[1]mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Im
> Auftrag
>    von
>    > Bradley Stone
>    > Gesendet: Thursday, 07.4 2016 21:39
>    > An: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
>    > Betreff: Re: End of the road for 7.1?
>    >
>    > I don't understand how ISVs don't support a newer release.
>    >
>    > It's super simple (well, once you find the "new" website) to set up a
>    free
>    > hosted partition using Virtual Loaner at any OS level with IBM.
>    >
>    > Too many dependencies on "ported" products maybe?  Most "native" stuff
>    like
>    > C, RPG, even Java don't seem to have issues with newer releases unless
>    it's
>    > a bug.
>    >
>    > Brad
>    > www.bvstools.com
>    >
>    > On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 2:09 PM, Steinmetz, Paul <
> PSteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx>
>    > wrote:
>    >