RE: E-mail notification from AS400 -- RPG400-L



On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Stone, Brad V (TC) wrote:

> Hans,
> 
> I don't think Gary was saying it can't be free.  He, like myself an many
> others, do a lot for the community for next to nothing or nothing.  A good
> example is David Gibbs and handling all of these mailing lists.  I know I
> personally must answer at least 50 or 60 emails a day, all for free.
> There's a lot of "free" stuff out there for the AS/400.  If you don't find
> it, just ask.  You'll get it most of the time.
> 
> I don't think secrets are guarded so much in the AS/400 world.  Just look at
> the activity on these lists alone.  Someone asks how to convert lower to
> upper case and they get 10000 answers, all correct.  :)  I wish I knew what
> these "secrets" were.  Now, if you were to say "well, you don't publish the
> source for your shareware" I'd have to disagree.  i don't post it all at
> once, but the ideas behind what it does, I have or I've at least said "just
> look here or use this API."  There's a fine line between "sharing the
> knowledge" and "doing the work".  

I think that this thread was specifically griping about messages that 
say "I wrote an article that explains this in News/400 in March" and
then expecting the user to buy a subscription if they need the actual
example.

Gary's point of view was that the magazines can't give the source away
for free because it costs money to run he magazine, pay the authors, 
run the web server, etc.

Hans' point of view was that Linux and other open source products _do_
give the stuff away, provide help, etc, for free.

> 
> When I help people, I try as hard as possible not to do the work for them.
> Why?  they don't learn.  Give them enough to get rolling.  They'll hate you
> in the beginning, but in the end they'll love you.  :)  
> 
> I also feel that comparing the linux community to the AS/400 community is
> like paper bags to pez. 

To me, the biggest difference tends to be that the AS/400 people never
want to do anything for free, and the open source community sees this as
"keeping secrets", etc.    Other than that, they really aren't that
different.  (I try to be active in both)

> I'm not writing my order entry or inventory
> applications in python, and I doubt there are many business that would want
> to replace their 720 with a Pentium 550 running redhat to take care of their
> warehousing.  

Why not?  If you buy server-quality hardware, the uptime is very good.  
I can't speak for Linux, but FreeBSD (also open-source) is the main 
operating system that I use for several different servers as well as my
own desktop enviornment.   In my experience, the uptime between FreeBSD
and OS/400 is comparable.   

The web server, e-mail servers, and other internet related software on 
FreeBSD blows OS/400 away.   The database engine in OS/400 blows FreeBSD
away.  

I could certainly see myself rewriting our order entry and inventory
apps and running them on FreeBSD.   I'm already rewriting some of our 
work in process apps in FreeBSD, and am finding that they work well.
I wouldn't write them in python, though... I use C.

The only problem is that I can't hook very many terminals up to a single
FreeBSD server.   Instead, I have to use PCs, rather than terminals.
I estimate that within 5 years IBM will force me to do this on the
AS/400 as well, since IBM's goal seems to be to force everyone to run
Windows PCs as a client.

> If you disagree, try running some of those "free" systems and
> you won't take M$ for granted so much anymore.  

I *hate* M$.  Windows does not work.  It is a broken piece of junk.  
Now THATS the operating system I won't ever do anything mission-critical
in.  (Although, it seems like many people are trying to FORCE ME to)

I know someone who has been running a FreeBSD server for over 1100 days
without even having to reboot.   Thats like 3 YEARS.   Even OS/400 needs
to be IPLed regularly.

> Sure my linux box does a
> good job as an internet router and firewall, but it's not ready to do much
> more, especially mission critical business software.

Can you elaborate on that?

> 
> In other words, with "free" you also sacrifice quality.  Vendors may charge,
> but they also provide support, documentation, quality (in most cases) and
> more, all of which are lacking in the "free" software world.
> 

Nonsense.   When I've had problems with FREE software, I almost always get
expert support within hours for a problem.   The people helping me tend to
really know how computers work and their products work.

On the other hand, any software company tends to have me sitting in a
voice mail queue for 10-15 minutes.   Then I get some bozo who doesn't
know ANYTHING more than what was already in the help screen for the 
software.   These people all assume that I don't know what I'm doing,
and will give me suggestions that don't make any sense (and don't work,
either)

After a few days of trying nonsensical things, I'll finally get forwarded
to the one person at the company who actually understands the software, 
and FINALLY he'll admit that theres a "known bug" in his software that
needs to be fixed. 

This may sound like an exaggeration, but its almost ALWAYS what I run into
when I have problems with a commercial software package.

With open source, I usually am able to talk directly to the developer, who
will fix the problem in hours.


So thats my experiences, I'd be interested in hearing yours.


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