Re: IBM will announce two new System i models, 515 and 525 on Apr. 10.

Two years ago when we were jumping through the hoops to become an IBM System i reseller, this is exactly what I had in mind. However, IBM wouldn't grant us a VAE because the software was free (Open Source) and they had no model for that (go figure). We took a different approach and are certified to resell but it is fairly restrictive and not in line with our business model.

The packages you mention are some we are looking at. We are also impressed with Open for Business which is now an Apache project (http://ofbiz.apache.org/). The list IS nearly endless. Our interest was to match our passion for i with our passion for Open Source. That might just be on the horizon now. It will take some help from IBM and some additional changes to the BP program before that can happen though.

Pete

albartell wrote:

My hope is that with some help from IBM, we can "pre-package" a common (and

Open Source) set of applications to resell to customers. The systems would
basically be pre-packaged and ready to install and remotely administer.

This caught my eye. Do you have packages in mind? Here are a couple to
keep in mind:

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) - Java - http://www.alfresco.com/
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - PHP - http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Java - http://www.openbravo.com

There are too many more to count that are solid, open source, and free
solutions out there. Somebody could make some serious money shipping
iSeries system preconfigured with a bunch of these applications out of the
box.

Aaron Bartell