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I believe one of the main reasons it's perceived as "old" or "legacy" is because that's what the competition is telling their customers and prospective customers. They can't compete in a side-by-side comparison, so they have to deflect their potential customers away for all of the System i benefits and advantages by selling them the hype that theirs is the more modern solution! Thank you, Ronald L. Zimmerman I.T. Applications Manager Swiss Valley Farms, Co. http://www.swissvalley.com "The Good for You Company" Email: Ron-Zimmerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 04/28/2006 12:53:10 PM: > Jim, > The reason the AS/400 is still around is because it is a stable > platform and you don't have to constantly port the applications from VB > to coldfusion to dot.net, which means that there is a good business case > for using the machine. That however is a separate issue from why the > system is perceived as obsolete by people who don't work with it every > day. Because they don't know about all of its wonderful features, they > look at the user interface and say "That looks like it was created in > the early 80's it must be OLD" > > -----Original Message----- > From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Damato > Sent: Friday, April 28, 2006 11:30 AM > To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion > Subject: RE: The Perpetual Myth of iSeries Obsolescence > > >The reason that people think the AS/400 is obsolete is because 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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