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On Oct 24, 2019, at 3:39 PM, smith5646midrange@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
I decided to add my $.02 to this discussion but rereading this, it is more
like a buck and a half. :)
I started programming on the AS/400 back in 92. I didn't know what that
meant. I was a COBOL developer learning RPG on a text based screen just
like everything else I had worked on to date. Again, I was a programmer,
not a techie.
Years later, I am still PROGRAMMING on a text based screen. One day I
referred to it as an AS/400 and was told it was an iSeries. Hmmm. Looks
like an AS/400 to me. Again, I am a programmer, not a techie. I'm not even
allowed in the data center to see the label on the machine. I assume it
says iSeries but I wouldn't bet on it. It might just say IBM. I still
don't know the difference but I try to remember to call it an iSeries.
Then one day someone asks me what's the difference. I'm a programmer that
has been on an iSeries for a while now but I still don't know. It looks and
acts like an AS/400. I didn't have to learn anything new to use it like I
had to learn when I changed from the Burroughs machine to the AS/400. Yes,
there is new functionality but the old commands still work. That happens
with OS upgrades but not different OS types as in Linux vs Windows vs i5/OS.
So as time goes on, I am getting better at calling it an iSeries until one
day someone corrects me that I am working on an eSeries. Again I ask, as a
programmer, what's the difference? As far as I know (feel free to correct
this if I am wrong), there was none and the name was really eServer iSeries
so it was still an iSeries.
Now over the years I have graduated to being a "enough knowledge to be very
dangerous" software techie. I do a lot of "geek" stuff (not much of the
normal applications like warehousing, etc.) and some OS admin stuff. I
still don't understand the hardware side. The OS has been enhanced
considerably over the years. I assume the hardware has too but not being a
hardware guy, I can't say what or how much and I don't really care. The OS
talks to the hardware, not me.
And, the incredible part is that my old AS/400 commands still work on my
current machine.
I once asked a user over the phone if they had an icon for a particular
iSeries that we had just installed new software on. She said no. I thought
maybe it was a naming confusion issue so I asked about an AS/400 icon.
Again, no. Puzzled, I walked to her desk and saw the icon was labeled
Island Pacific.
Ask most CEOs about the machine on their desk and you will get an answer
that it is a "laptop" or a "desktop". If you ask what kind, you get an
answer of Windows or Mac (an OS name??? Interesting). What brand? They
don't know. Intel or AMD and which generation? They don't know. MacBook
or MacAir? They don't know. They don't care as long as they can do their
job. I will go so far as to say that most people (even techies) that own an
iPad can't tell you which version they have.
So, to sum this up, if you are a software guy like me, it is the OS that you
care about and not the hardware. If you are a user, it is the app that you
care about.
My suggestion is if you really want everyone to know what the machine or OS
is, put it on the login screen somewhere so they see (consciously or
otherwise) what they are logging into. Maybe it will stick in their heads.
Otherwise, it is still a text based green screen that looks and feels like
an AS/400 and will continue to be called by that name until UI is perfected
and the machines reprogram us.
--
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