IBM News

IBM i (AS/400) turns 20!

It was almost 20 years ago when I got into IT, and my first desktop PC was an IBM AS/400 e90…I think it cost $3 Million. I of course was sharing it with 700 other users, but what a great beast!

I just wanted to wish the IBM i (AS/400) a very Happy Birthday, next year we can all go out drinking!

Link to Chris Maxcer’s Blog about the Birthday and IBM 

-Oh I was not invited to the events in Rochester this week and to say I am hurt is an understatment. From the leading IBM i Blogger on the web to, some goofball at in Charlotte writting about technology. It’s a long fall!

Chris Maxcer - i and AIX: Not Exactly the Same on Power Systems

Chris makes an interesting observation - LINK

“There are still some differences in how IBM is rolling out its converged System i and System p server lineup — though it’s not so much the hardware that’s different as it is the availability of the operating system. In the IBM i world, we’d pretty much always rather be first, but is being first really that critical?”

Scott Klement Honored with Gary Guthrie Writing Award

Link to Post

 ”At the recent System iNEWS annual editorial conference in Boulder, Colorado, Scott Klement, tech editor extraordinaire, was honored with the Gary Guthrie Award for Excellence in Technical Writing, for his October 2007 System iNEWS article titled “RPG Rules.” The award goes to writers who exemplify the best in technical writing, content, and service to the System i community. Scott’s young son, Alex, proudly helped Dad accept the award. Way to go, Scott!”

Way to go Scott, Gary would have agreed. I was lucky to work with Gary at REAL Solutions and he always loved to share, just like Scott does, the award could not have gone to a more deserving person. I am kind of choked up right now. Bravo Zulu!

iPhone & Lotus Notes - What do we do now

Yesterday Apple released a new version of the iPhone and somewhere in the mix old Steve Jobs, who looks sick, left out talking about IBM and Lotus iNotes for the iPhone.

There is a good bit of chatter on Ed Brill’s blog about it and people are concerned.  Nathan Freeman weights in on the SDK problem.

IT Jungle - They System i is gone so how are we going to all find work?

I know the title is rather scary and not “real” but the truth of the matter is this. The companies that run the i are slowly moving away and the people knowing the i are getting older, hence those two factors are driving companies away from the platform. The next big problem is how do you get job on what is considered an “old” platform, even though UNIX is harder to use, more expensive to own and a pain at times, it still has 93 times more job postings. It’s hard to understand and will make your head explode if you try to think about it to long.

IT Jungle has written a great article on the matter and I wanted to share it with y’all.

“Anyway, just for kicks, I ran some queries against these three job sites looking for the number of times specific hardware platforms or operating systems were mentioned, and I did not try every possible operating system and every possible platform name.”

LINK

IBM Eye

I found this blog the other day and find it interesting. I just wanted to share it with you and hope you all enjoy it too.

LINK - IBM Eye 

2008 IT Leaders Forum in Denver, CO

Link to Site

Make sure you reserve your place at the 2008 IT Leaders Forum in Denver. If you are in Denver, and I know some of you are, this would be a great place to meet other IT Leaders from around the country. It looks like it will be a blast and has some really great speakers too.

“Combine business with pleasure at the 2008 IT Leaders Forum in beautiful Colorado! Enjoy the unmatched scenery and summer activities and learn from the industry’s top experts.”

i Disagree with your post Mark Fontecchio

So I don’t really disagree with Mark, I just disagree with his post and wanted to post his name on my blog to steal hits away from his. See tons of people daily good for “Mark Fontecchio” and I want to bathe in the light he warms himself in just a little bit.

I don’t know who this is: “an IT employee from an Arizona-based general contracting company”, but all I do know is he is pretty funny and not right on. LINK TO POST HERE.

I think the name, i , is fine. The more important part of the name change the POWER part. While the name will always get attention both positive and negative but the fact that there is one platform is huge. The best think IBM has done in a long time.

IBM i name change is not good for everyone . . . I guess

I reported a few weeks back that IBM changed the System i and i5/OS to “i for Business” and the hardware was going to be called POWER. This as one person put it was a no-brainer. While I see the move as a positive thing for the entire power based community and the platform as whole some poeple like Ken Jack don’t see it the same way as I do. I would also like to point out I have always been one to complain about things I don’t think are right but in this case IBM is right and Ken is dead wrong.

Ken said on his site:

“In their ongoing efforts to kill name recognition, confuse the marketplace, and drop sales to all time lows, Big Blue has once again changed how they refer to one of the finest thinkin’ machines to ever hit the market. But if it walks like an AS/400, it talks like an AS/400, and it looks like an AS/400, then it’s probably an AS/400. This is an homage to IBM’s ingenious Attention Deficit marketing strategy.”

Ken, Ken, Ken, tisk tisk. It’s easy to be stuck on the term AS/400, I can see that. Some people I know still call it “da 400″ and we all still know what they are talking about. The term AS/400 never really explained what it meant, what it did or why you needed it. AS/400 I always felt was a cryptic term for the system and IBM used to make the “old people” happy. I don’t think IBM has driven the numbers lower, the price of the system, the number of options in servers to IT managers, and the longevity of the platform and hardware makes it a slow seller.

While IBM has struggled to market the platform well in the past I think over the past 3 years the marketing has been better and have failed to hear anyone including myself come up with a decent marketing plan to date. While it’s not my job nor is it your job it can’t be an easy system to market. While we are at it when was the last time you saw an AIX commercial, a Solaris or SUN commercial or even a Windows Server ad? I have not seen many of them doing much of anything and I think over all the numbers are down for all three big companies. The point you need to take away from this is the offering is now stronger and a name is just a name. If you going to get stuck on the name then I can’t help you. That is some kind of issue you need to work out in the dark with your thoughts, as for the rest of us we are moving forward and while the shirts are cute they are a bit backhanded to the bulk of the community how liked the new logo and ideas coming from IBM.

I got my feet wet on an AS/400 and that will always be my story but I advanced as the system has and I would beg that you do the same with your thinking.

Link to more info 

IBM may be moving to Apple for Desktops & Laptops

Oh me? I have never been a big supporter of Windows, that is clear. I have a long history of not liking Windows. I have also been very vocal with IBM telling them they can tell us how much they hate Windows and then force the user community they have to use it. It’s just not right. Plus all of their internal employees are mostly forced to use Windows as well. The most funny thing is IBM has a person, who shall remain nameless, that is the most vocal Open Sourced Linux fanatic/evangelist working all over the world spreading the good news up Linux, PHP and MySQL on POWER and his desktop is of course a Windows desktop. How insane is that?

I think this is a positive move in the right direction by I do recall a press release from IBM in 2003 that said in the next 3 -4 years most internal desktops would move to Linux and we see where that has gotten….no where.

Link to the Post

“Long-time Microsoft Windows supporter IBM has recently initiated an internal pilot program to study the possibility of moving a significant number of its employees to Apple’s Mac platform, leaked company documents show.”

I also found this link while doing more reading. 

With good result and comments like these I think this is a very positive thing for IBM and Apple.

“I have been a true PC stalwart for 2+ decades, but after trying Vista, I’m ready for a change.”

“Getting wireless running was a piece of cake on the Mac, much simpler than the PC.”

But then again for all the Mac people out there you already knew what IBM is finding out today!