On Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 9:51 AM Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
<midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yes I am aware that this is the 'midrange mailing list' and has been
that way since its inception, but the specific post is for IBM i. For
someone who doesn't know about this list they might look at their server
and see "Power System." They might look at the operating system and see
"IBM i." They would use these items in a search engine. There is no
chance they would think to use "Midrange." (Or for that matter any of
the other names the system hasn't had for well over a decade or more.)
The name 'midrange' has never been used by IBM nor will it ever be. It
is only slang used by many who are already in the know.
I respectfully disagree. The most popular name BY FAR for this
platform for people who are NOT "already in the know" is AS/400. And
it always will be as long as its market share is shrinking rather than
growing, and there is no "halo project" to prop up its mindshare, like
an IBM i that's at the heart of a world-beating chess machine,
Jeopardy player, self-driving car, conversational Turing-test-passer,
etc.
No amount of wishful thinking by people inside the IBM midrange
community can ever change the reality on the outside, where there are
basically four categories of people:
1. Don't know ANY of the names EVER of this platform. Never heard of
such a thing. MAYBE have a faint inkling that IBM used to and possibly
still makes "mainframes". Surely if it's not Windows, not Unix or
Linux, and not Mac, and it's made by IBM, it's a mainframe. Right?
2. Never used it, but have heard that the AS/400 is incredibly
reliable and stable.
3. Never used it, but have heard that the AS/400 is an old-school
computing system used by old-school businesses.
4. Technology buffs who have never used the platform, but avidly and
without bias study the entire computing landscape. This is a very
small category of people, but they are more likely than not to respect
many aspects of IBM's midrange tech. The AS/400 was to business
computing somewhat like what the Amiga was to personal computing.
Ahead-of-its-time tech, devoted enthusiasts, never made it into the
mainstream. The people in this category ARE in the know, and already
are aware of its various names.
For those who are from the first three categories but find themselves
stepping into a new role working with an IBM i, they will most likely
head to Stack Overflow or other sites in the Stack Exchange network,
like Server Fault. All the various names for the platform have been
gathered (via the Stack Exchange synonym mechanism, and thus all
equally searchable) into the official, canonical tag [ibm-midrange].
John Y.
midrange.com
