RE: Microsoft thwarted again

["James H H Lampert" <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>    There are wonderful technological points in favour of
> both machines, but; unless the iSeries can get and maintain a
> broader foothold in this marketplace, it will become the "betamax"
> of computers.
>    Take it from an old veteran, the best technology doesn't necessarily
> 'win'.
>    The S/36 was the most popular mid range computer in the world at one
> point . . . . Ours just sort of faded out of existence, without even an
> attempt by IBM to re-gain an old customer.

It seems to me that one of the biggest problems was that IBM allowed
"green screen" to become a pejorative. It certainly wasn't always that
way. I remember two years of high school programming classes, and five
years at CSU Long Beach, pursuing my BS in computer science, when
everybody was stuck with the cheap, "white P4 phosphor" versions of such
terminals as Lear ADMs, Datamedia Elites, and various Telerays. The only
"green screen" terminals, for the most part, were the expensive ones used
in the offices. Likewise, most people working terminals, even if they had
green screens, were working devices that were truly dumb: "glass
teletypes." could only DREAM of the sort of capabilities even the most
elementary 3270 and 5250 terminals had.

IBM kept updating and improving 5250-data-stream hardware up to only a few
short years ago, but because they never bothered to update the docs for
the data stream (except in the most obtuse, incomplete, and roundabout
ways), and never bothered to provide DDS support (much less SDA support)
for a lot of the new functions (like mouse support and non-space-consuming
attributes on 3487s), practically nobody was able to take advantage of
those improvements.

And nobody at IBM was lifting a finger to point out the advantages of text
mode (speed and technological simplicity, as well as only having to buy
the damned thing once, as opposed to WinDoze boxes going out of date every
year or so).

--
JHHL