January, 2008

Must be my lucky word of the Day

The word of the day today at TechTarget is UBUNTU. One of my favorite words. I just wanted to share.

System i Express Radio Ad

On the way to work the other morning I was listening to a local talk station in Charlotte, NC and heard one of those familiar IBM radio ads with the IBM Drive through, in the end you find out they are talking about the IBM System i Express. I was happy to hear IBM putting the word out. Now they need to tell everyone the price as well. Starting at $8000.00. Not bad for a entry level midrange. It would make DELL and Microsoft alike shake in their boots.

IBM is starting to get it. Lotus is on track, IBM System i is on track now if we can only get rid of that pesky Windows OS the world would be a better place. I don’t mind the Windows desktop, so much as I do the Server. I don’t even on a good day consider the Windows Server a server. It’s more like an overgrown desktop. No honest administrator would be caught dead doing anything with a GUI….oh I have used iNavigator a few times but not all the time. This is a topic we can do another day.

I would love for small shops that need small servers to consider the System i now before you get tied up in a Windows Server that your business will out grow sooner rather than later. Do the right thing now, it may seem like more but in the end it’s actually less over time, plus when was the last time DELL offered you an upgrade path on an Intel Server?

LINK: IBM System i Product Page

If anyone had a link to the System i Express Ad please post it. I have looked all over for it.

New Lotus 8 Book - It’s a good start

I am just following up from my post/question about where all the Lotus 8 books are. Packt Press made a book about upgrading to 7 and they seem to have a new book covering how to upgrade to 8 as well. Enjoy!

Link to POST

Ubuntu ready for prime time?

Us Ubuntu fans have all been waiting for the day when IBM says UBUNTU is ready for prime time. I have been asking 2 things from IBM over the past 3 or 4 years. Make a supported Client Access for Linux (RPM & .DEB) and Make a Lotus Notes Client for Linux (RPM & .DEB). I am not aksing for much am I?

While I know the Client Access for Linux will really never show up, they do have some things out there that will run on any platform via a browser, but nothing like what is available for Windows right now. I will keep holding my breath and see what happens.

A few years back IBM approved DB2 to run and be supported on Ubuntu Server. It was a big move and I don’t think any large IT shops payed attention. Why run DB2 on Windows when you can run it on Ubuntu for less and faster.

I would like to thank IBM for making Lotus Notes for Ubuntu. (Link to Chris Linfoot) I could just scream like a little girl when I heard Lotus 8.5 will be supported on Ubuntu. Now all we need is the Admin Client to run on Ubuntu and we all know the Domino Designer will eventually run inside of Eclipse and that will cover that.

Overall we are getting there. Linux is going to be a big part of IT this year and in the up coming years. I look forward to more Ubuntu/linux adoption.

Link to CNET

Another Link

Where are all the Lotus 8 Books

I love to read and really love to read a good tech manual. I want to ask the book companies who contenue to print out 30 books on Linux and hundreds of books on Microsoft products, where are the books on Lotus? Why are the book companies ignoring a huge market like the Lotus product. From the Lotus 8 release alone I could think of 8 or 9 books that could be written and would love to see only no one seems interested in writting them? Can’t IBM place a few calls and get some great book written? The bulk of the Lotus books are for R5 and Version 6. Not much out there for Version 7 and very little on 8. Lotus 8 changes the face of everything and no one in the printing world is working on it. I approched 5 or so book companies about getting out a Lotus 8 book for Users and Adminsitrators, but no one and I mean no one would even consider the idea.

Anyone else out there seeing the same things? Since I missed Lotusphere this year are you guys there seeing any books? The System i books are pretty good right now, but if you want to learn Lotus you had better be ready to join the school of hard knocks.

Do you want more OS/2?

My first moments with OS/2 came in 1992 when I started to work with IBM PS/2 that came with Windows 3.1 or OS/2 v2. Of course being the rebel I picked OS/2. I also ran PC Support for OS/2 conecting to my AS/400 at the time. A very large E95. I was then later exposed to more OS/2 fun when I worked at IBM in Atlanta. On our production desktops we ran OS/2 V3 and before I left IBM I was running Warp4.  Warp4 was in fact the best OS/2 ever. I was a huge fan of OS/2. I had found Linux but it was so hard to install.

So still being a fan of OS/2 it made me kind of sad to think IBM won’t OPEN SOURCE OS/2 for the rest of the world to use. We need Warp5 so bad. Linux is really making end roads but an new version of OS/2 would have made me happy. Let’s all hope IBM does the right thing and let the community have the source code for OS/2 and sooner rather than later.

Do you have any OS/2 stories and what do you think about IBM not making OS/2 open source?

Lotus 8.5 Beta out for Mac

Lotus has been “dragging their collective feet” with the release of the Mac edition of Lotus Notes. I am a Mac user at home and have has to support Mail on Macs in the past. Both large mail camps do a horrible job but Lotus seems to miss the boat when they can win it over an dover again by putting a Mac version out on time with the Windows Release. For now I am done scolding Lotus it’s significant that they now have a beta out for you Mac folks out there to test.

With Lotusphere this week in Orlando it’s important that they stop the people like me who time over time give them greif about the versions all being release on the same day for all platforms. Other than the fact that is just shows disorganization it also makes upgrading clients very hard and it’s also a bit of a chore to keep the versioning right. Rochester had to learn this lesson the hard way with OS/400 and Client Access. We all can recall the confusion of having an OS version of V4R3 and Client Access V3R1M3. I spent countless hours on the phone explaining that bit of confusion.

My recomendation to Lotus is to get all the Clients and other Applications all on the same version. It would only make life so much easier.

Lotusphere 2008 Predictions

Lotusphere is next week, and while this is the System i blog, and I know Lotus is not a System i only application it’s still pretty relevant. The System i and Lotus Domino are just great together. Like Chocolate & Peanut Butter . . . If you into that kind of thing.

Lets get started. This will be my first time making any kind of prediction on this blog so lets get started.

1. Lotus Notes will get an installer in .DEB format for Ubuntu (50% Sure)
2. The iPhone will get some attention from Lotus (90% Sure)
3. Lotus Notes/Domino 8.0.1 will be released. (100% Sure)
4. Lotus Notes for Mac will arrive (80% Sure)
5. Lotus Domino will now run on Ubuntu and be supported (Pipe Dream -10% Sure)
6. Lotus Domino will not run on MacOSX Server (Pipe Dream - 1% Sure)
7. Lotus renames all of it products just to mix it up a bit (Funny - 99% Sure)
8. Lotus drops the Domino Designer Tool and pushes Eclipse (50%  Sure)
9. Lotus spins back off into it’s own company ( 1% sure)
10. Lotus re-releases Lotus Office Suite for Free and it works great (50% sure)

So there they are. Some are funny and others a bit of me dreaming. I am going to see maybe 3 -4 come true the rest we can all think about for the rest for the year.

COMMON Registration Open

I will be at COMMON this year in Nashville, TN and so should you. I just wanted to post that the registration is now open online and if you shop early you will get the discount. It’s a deal if your a dedicated System i person looking to meet other people just like you and learn at your pace and what you want to know more about. Lots of great presenters, including yours truly, will be presenting a whole mess of topics for you to enjoy.

So head on over to the COMMON web site. Make sure you dues are all paid for and get signed up for COMMON. I think its going to be a very full Annual Meeting this 2008.

Current Pricing for 2008 Annual Meeting and Exposition*

Learn more about the Guest program - click here.

Community?

I am traveling today, it’s a Sunday and the airport is pretty busy. People coming home from visits, from going to new places, and of course business travelers. While I could preach about the old argument that I think, and this is tongue and cheek stuff, but there should be an airline for “Professional Flyer’s” and one for amateurs, but I think I will save that one for another time.

Today while in the Charlotte Airport, where I will be spending a good amount of my time from now on, I needed to grab a bit to eat. I had not had anything all morning and didn’t want fast food so I decided to eat at the sit down Chili’s. Chili’s is not my favorite place to eat but it was good today.

Before we dive into the meat of the conversation let me preface it a bit . . .

We all have one thing in common, we are all people and even if you have not noticed we are very odd creatures. I love to watch people in public situations. I like to see how they interact and move around each other, communicate with each other, and review one another. I think we grow stranger and stranger each day. We as people communicate and create communications. Right now as you read this I am communicating with you, while not direct, it is a form of communication. Last night my wife and I had the opportunity to have a really nice dinner and conversation with one of our new neighbors. That is a form of direct communication and community building. From that dinner I now know more about my neighbors, their lives, likes, dislikes and how they view the world. I truly do enjoy that form of communication.

Blogging is a very indirect form of communication and over time you can learn a bit about me but it’s not really building community, other then you get a small bit of insight into my views of System i based enterprise IT.

So in the Chili’s, and at this point you were wondering what Chili’s had to do with it, I was seated at a small table not 2 feet from another table with a man at it about my age (35) in the garb of a Catholic Priest reading a book about Jesus written by the new Pope. The fact that he is a priest is somewhat important to this post but could be left out as well.

When I sat down I noticed he gave me the “shifty eyes” as he looked up form his reading. I am a creature of habit and after attending an “All Boys Catholic Military School” as a young man and being taught by catholic priest every day for four years I said “Hello Father”, to which he said nothing. Maybe the book was really good or at one of those riveting points where you dare not stop reading but a little head nod would have been enough to stop my mind from wondering and thinking about community and people.

It also got me wanting to put my keyboard to work blogging about my thoughts.

I didn’t think the priest was being rude but in the back of my mind I can recall more often than not people in airports, hotels, busses, and such that are just not open to other peoples communications or that they are even there in some cases. It seems to be a growing problem. Jim Grisanzio noted some odd behavior in Japan on the trains.

Then you have this, blogging, if I can’t communicate with you in person I think the blog is a very backwards way to get to know someone. While I am able to get my thoughts out in the open it’s not very personal. You might never know I am a complete goof ball and love to make people laugh. I am a slave to other people laughter and will stop at nothing to make you the listener have a good time. You might never know that reading this blog but it’s true.

The System i Community at times struggles to be a community. Just ask Trevor Perry. While Trevor is able to communicate his thoughts and ideas with the zeal of a Circus Barker, his message is sometime lost. Trevor is a master communicator, and could make you excited about getting a vasectomy, but sometimes I feel that no one wants to hear what he has to say. I know I do.

At the end of the day deep down inside I am still a geek who at times would rather hide in a dark office, than talk to anyone. The community needs us and yet we fight that with a natural instinct to not communicate. I see this every year at COMMON and have done it myself.

In the past given the options to hang out in a large ball room having drinks or sitting in my room with my laptop or TV, there were times when I would have chosen hotel room. I know to some people it sounds odd, but I am sure some of you are reading this saying “that’s me”.

There are a few questions on my mind and the one big one is how do we form a stronger community with people who at times would rather the community just be there without them? How do we make the System i community better when we only meet once a year?

We have some tools at our disposal online. We all can head over to iSociety.com and share what we know, meet other people and do a little online, but I will take it up at COMMON, I think the site is very limiting in that it’s a nice place but I don’t think it focuses on community or society building. I do like love the fireside chats. We could also head over to LinkedIn.com and join up with each other and that might help, or COMMON could put some type of Linkedin type thing in iSociety? I think that letting LinkedIn do what it does is the best way and keep them separate is the nest move.

The System i Community is very large and is very vast, IBM has not done much via it’s web site or it’s company to foster the community, and maybe they have left that to COMMON, since that is what they do best. Hats off to COMMON for being a great place to build community.

Our next big chance to all meet in person is at COMMON in Nashville this spring. I am truly all worked up about it. I get to see my friends and I get to meet new ones. The hair on the back of my neck is standing up thinking about all the community I will be building this year. I want everyone to keep reading this blog, I want you to really think and post your thoughts. I think we need to all meet at COMMON this year. I want to meet everyone who has read anything I have written, even if you hated it I want to know you read it and I want you to say “I hated it”, and then tell me why. I assure you I am not going to get upset and in the end you will know me and I will know you. We just built a little bit of community all be it in anger.

So as we get closer to COMMON I want you to really want to attend the parties and community building that goes on after hours. I want you to come to the Bloggers session and talk to us. I want you to think about building your community and in the end would be building our community.

The System i has been out for over 20 years and we still struggle with our community. IBM struggles to get companies to see the value of the System i and in the companies still think the System i is over prices compare to Intel boxes that cost less and perform less. It’s a hard row we have to hoe but we have to do it. We have to build and in the end you will gain a few friends, share some stories about CD trays being cup holders and how the old systems were big and tan and go home with a few more people in your contacts you can email and look forward to seeing next year.

You can also hang out more at ITKE and make it a point to help answer a few questions. Post some thoguhts on a blog or two just to let the blogger know you are reading it In order for this site to grow they need you, the community to show up and participate.

Make it a point to talk to everyone you can at COMMON.

Make it a point to communicate.