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>The reason that people think the AS/400 is obsolete is because >it looks obsolete. I dunno Chris. Our new 570 looks pretty much like any other server in the data center -- rack mounted, and some shade of black. >We can argue all day long whether terminal >interface is better then GUI for certain types of tasks. The >Unix guys do this to they will talk and talk about how great >the command line interface is, but Unix has a GUI too and >when it is appropriate to use they use it. I don't know what the server's interface for administration has to do with the front end styling of business systems. I manage a team of Unix Admins. They spend 90% of their day on the command line. They view Unix's proprietary GUI's pretty much the same way most folks on this list view the iSeries Navigator. Our Oracle DBA's spend a heck of a lot of time on the Unix command line as well. You're saying that green screen is perceived as obsolete -- graphical means new. I don't disagree that people feel that way. It is, however, pretty dumb. What looks obsolete is the traditional interface for the server. I'm simultaneously frustrated and amused by folks who think that Windows means GUI and iSeries / AS/400 means green screen, because of the server console/interface. What then, does Unix mean? The various proprietary GUI's for Unix have nothing to do with the hosted databases and applications. The back-end Windows server we all know and love today grew out of years of development of a desktop PC with a graphical interface. The server IS its own graphical console. So what? This doesn't facilitate the development of modern systems -- the low level methods of access from client to app server to database server, and the development tools for development of apps to the client or app server dictate the ability to produce graphical apps. The AS/400 / iSeries environment has always allowed an easy method for deploying workstations to the users. A Windows server doesn't facilitate the development or presentation of applications. You can't plug in card or switch on a service to hardwire or virtually deploy Windows sessions from the server to users. It requires a whole 'nuther architecture. Therefore there's never been a traditional Windows application -- there have been iterations of VB and PowerBuilder and Cold Fusion, and dot Net... and dozens of other architectures and presentations for applications. Many of which are now obsolete. What's neat to me is that iSeries applications create the impression of an obsolete system because the apps themselves ARE NOT obsolete. Folks are still using third-party and home grown apps because they still run their businesses, and folks are still writing new ones because they don't want to invest in the overhead of app servers, web servers, and more complex relational database management. The commitment to backwards compatibility is now viewed as a liability. Imagine if applications developed for Windows fifteen years ago were able to survive the ports from Windows 3.1 on the desktop and NT on the server, to the current Windows technology. Folks might then be mocking the obsolete nature of Windows because of all those clunky client-server apps still around from the early 90's. Instead, because these technologies actually more honestly became obsolete, this generation of Windows technology doesn't "look obsolete". The only way to make the iSeries look less obsolete to the unthinking masses would be to come up with an OS release which cripples 5250 presentation. Then iSeries would no longer be associated with its considerable base of stable, reliable (what's the opposite of obsolete) green screen applications, and no one would be able to quickly and easily develop new ones. -Jim
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