Re: Perl (was: text equation

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Hans,

And I fail to understand why companies that use the world's best OS (OS/400) 
settle for 
a second-rate, half-arsed effort like Windoze?  I know a lot of it is driven by 
technically inept managers who do confuse SELL with INSTALL, but why do the 
rest of the 
technical staff put up with it?

I would be quite happy to see more AS/400 related tools available on Linux, but 
Linux 
(like all Unix systems) is still too hard to use as a tool.  I installed RedHat 
Linux on 
my Thinkpad just to prove I could but I do all my work with OS/2 'cause it is 
easier to 
use.  I like the WorkPlace Shell.  Maybe if that existed on Linux I'd be 
happier with 
it.

Linux has a low entry cost but a high support cost.  It still requires 
full-time 
pointy-heads to make it run and while I know that situation is quite likely to 
improve, 
I doubt it will ever get truly transparent.  The entire philosophy of Unix is 
geared to 
the bit-twiddler, not the user.  A PC for me is just a tool, and I do not want 
to spend 
all my time messing with the tool.  When IBM finally stuff up OS/2 support, 
I'll move to 
Apple.

Hans, I doubt you have a choice in what OS you use at work.  You may have a 
little more 
freedom since you are in development, but IBM have standardised world-wide on 
Windoze of 
one sort or another.  Why?  Because they get a better deal on the license costs 
for the 
PCs they sell.  They are simply knuckling under to MS demands.

With the current upsurge against Microsoft, IBM has a perfect opportunity to 
provide an 
alternative *IF* they hire a decent marketing company to promote it.  We've 
seen similar 
comments here about IBM's poor marketing of the AS/400 so I doubt it will ever 
happen, 
but IBM could rename OS/2 (call it Phoenix -- haha -- and remove all OS/2 
references in 
the GUI and help text) and promote it as the New Technology for home and 
business.  If 
MS can convince the world that NT (which is a poor version of OS/2) is good, 
IBM can do 
much the same with a better product.  Get the hearts and minds of the great 
unwashed.  
They need brand-awareness for their main products.  People should know these 
names: 
AS/400, OS/2, DB2, WebSphere, SmartSuite, etc, and they should stand on their 
own.

IBM have some truly brilliant people and technology available.  I just wish 
they had a 
chairman with the guts to use it all properly.  IBM generally notice hot 
technology just 
about the time everyone else loses interest in it.  If IBM are starting to 
notice Linux 
I'll bet it's about to die!  They'd be better off picking their own direction 
and 
selling that to the simpletons who make the purchasing decisions.  Gerstener 
should read 
Sun Tzu and make IBM into a warrior rather than a camp-follower.

IBM are simply jumping at whatever flavour is hot this week, month, year.  
Java, Web, 
Linux, who cares -- as long as there is service revenue to be generated IBM 
will have a 
bash at it.  That approach might work for the short-term and satisfy the 
shareholders 
but it doesn't work in the long-term and certainly isn't customer-focused.  
Once upon a 
time IBM set the directions for the IT industry, now they are are scattered, 
un-focused, 
bunch of me too's.

Damn! I was being so good about not responding to various inane comments and 
threads 
over the past few months.  I feel better now.  I really do not want to get 
involved in 
yet another e-mail argument about OS's and directions, but Jeez, IBM, get your 
act 
together!

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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//--- forwarded letter -------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 08:37:27 -0500
> From: boldt@ca.ibm.com
> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Reply-To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject: Perl (was: text equation

> Simon wrote:
> >And I think you meant "tens of thousands" of OS/2 users  :)  Although we
> >are fewer in number than the Windoze crowd, we are significantly happier
> >with our choice of OS!  And we'd be quite happy to welcome any recovering
> >Windoze addicts back to the fold.
> 
> I don't want to beat up on OS/2, but although there may still
> be "tens of thousands" of OS/2 users, Roger's number may more
> accurately reflect the number of AS/400 people using OS/2.
> 
> Even I, once a big OS/2 fan, now use WNT here at work.  I don't
> like it, but it does have all the most current tools.  And as
> some of you may have noticed from my notes, at home I use Linux.
> I still occasionally boot up OS/2 for a few things, but Linux is
> my primary home workstation.
> 
> Do I have a point here?  Well, yes.  Considering the current
> climate, if you want an alternative to Windows (and who
> doesn't?), you'd be much better off asking for workstation
> tools (like VARPG) on Linux.  Unlike OS/2, Linux is hot these
> days.  Even management here is beginning to take notice!
> 
> Cheers!  Hans
> 
> Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com

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