Re: Impressions of EGL - Part Duex

Didn't David just create a list for EGL?

Can you guys move this discussion to that list so the rest of us don't have
to keep deleting all of these EGL posts?

Despite your heated interest in the topic...not everyone shares your
enthusiasm for the subject and since you now have a dedicated list for
EGL...

Thank you





-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 1:53 PM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Impressions of EGL - Part Duex

Guillermo Andrades, CPI Software skrev den 26-05-2008 20:29:

Thorbjørn ,

<<vendor lock-in. Can you guarantee that your product will be updated and
supported for the next X years? Including if you happen to be bought by a
competitor?>>

A lot of customers and BP was thinking in it when using Ofivision or OS2

or

VisualAgeRPG or AD/Cicle and +others+ from IBM directly, or MS with VB and
FoxPro.
The Future is very hard to predice even in big names companies.

As you might have noticed - I've mentioned it once or twice - I am
currently advocating that I believe that the only way to be CERTAIN that
it will be available is to have the source available to the general
public under a suitable license of the WHOLE software stack you are
using - this is hard when using AS/400 but it is important to know what
choices you have. I know that this is not the usual place to do
advocating, but I believe that most of the people in here have been
bitten at least once.

For those interested in the economic view of this, I would suggest that
you read the writings of Eric Raymond at
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/magic-cauldron/ (he
has a lot of writings of the kind at
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/)

Regarding the examples you mention, I am certain that it is not
technological reasons but political reasons that they are not here today
in the form they were at their heyday.