Re: No giving up on System i

["Peter Dow (ML)" <maillist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Trevor,

Responses in line...

Trevor Perry wrote:
> Peter,
>
> This is a fantastic find. I cannot see the i5 or System i5 names anywhere on
> the latest IBM System i web site. Has IBM been sneaky and changed the name
> again??  In the last 6 months, I have been working on software, and had
> little to do with hardware configurations, etc. So, this ~change~ has snuck
> by me. I am investigating, and will return with any information I can
> gather.
>   
It's funny, I started out just wanting to say something about the 
subject after running into the System i Network registration page, but 
when I started looking for stuff to support what I wanted to say, I 
decided to just start looking for it as if I were a new customer.  And 
to me that meant go to www.ibm.com and look for their products.  And 
since I only looked at it today, I can't say that it's changed -- it may 
have been that way for the last 6 months or more.

> For me, I found it easy to break it down to System i as the brand, and
> System i5, iSeries and AS/400 as the servers in that family. This was how it
> was when System i was first announced, and it was the most logical way to
> view it. If this is not the case any more, then of course, we have just been
> confused by the mothership one more time.
>   
And your way makes sense to me too -- it means I have a System i AS400 
model 170 (at least that's how I see it), an older machine that's part 
of the System i brand or family.  If IBM and the vendors could just get 
it straight on their websites and in their talking points, we'd be home 
free.

> As for System i Network, they probably have not updated their questionnaire.
> With lots of the press and vendors being confused by the name/brand/server
> with which to reference our platform, this is what happens.
>   
Actually, I could've sworn it said AS400 all the way down that list when 
I was actually registering.  Then I sent off the email to their 
webmaster, and decided to send one to midrange.com.  At that point, when 
I went back to look it had i5 and iSeries, so it could be just faulty 
grey cells.

> And yes, this is another reason why we should focus more on the i5/OS name.
> Since early this year, I noticed that subtle switch by IBMers. It feels less
> confusing, and the only whine about it is the '5' in the name.
>
> And yes, IBM does control the websites, manuals, OS, etc. A couple of weeks
> ago, I sent two images to Mark Shearer of i5/OS where it says 400 and
> iSeries. I cannot say he was already aware of this i5/OS issue, but he knows
> now.
You know, such a great operating system should really have a better name...

*Peter Dow* /
Dow Software Services, Inc.
909 793-9050
pdow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:pdow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> /