Re: Microsoft "mainframe"

[Jim Oberholtzer <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxx>]

To be clear, as I understand the story having heard it from more than 
one person in Rochester, it was not their choice to give up on the 
"smart 5250 terminal", rather it was a case where the senior leadership 
in IBM felt the idea would be better served by the Boca Raton group so 
it was moved there.

Jim Oberholtzer
CEO/Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects, LLC


On 6/19/2010 10:23 AM, cfuture wrote
> Thanks for the link to idevcloud Jim.
> "What might have been..."
>
> Frank Soltis, genius that he is, said once in a presentation at a local
> users' group meeting that his biggest regret was deciding not to include
> a GUI for the system, thinking that a business system had no need for
> it. I think I heard it right. But during the time he was making that
> decision, if this is true, that probably would have been at least 95
> percent of the midrange market...
>
> --Alan
>
>
>
> Jim Oberholtzer wrote:
>    
> > Keep your eye on http://www.idevcloud.com for the developer micro
> > partitioning on IBM i.
> >
> > As to the other points I agree that "smart terminals" AKA thin clients
> > are the future with the main processing and storage back in the data
> > center where it is better managed and the cost of ownership is much lower.
> >
> > Funny, that's what Rochester tried to do with the 5250 terminal back in
> > the late 70s.  Put a floppy/hard drive on it and allow the internal
> > processor to do more than just serve up 24*80 line screens.  The IBM
> > boys in Boca Raton, FL grabbed that idea and the IBM PC was born about a
> > year later........  Ya gotta wonder what might have been.....
> >
> > Jim Oberholtzer
> > CEO/Chief Technical Architect
> > Agile Technology Architects, LLC
> >
> >
> > On 6/13/2010 6:06 PM, cfuture wrote:
> >
> >      
> > > *This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(r) Pro*
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >        
> > > > And it will happen again. Every 10 years or so. Watch...the next hot thing will be client server!
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >          
> > > ---
> > > Thin clients will stay, because they are easier to upgrade or downgrade
> > > or fix and fast to reboot, all the rest. They are going to slowly take
> > > desktops over from our present desktop models, because of those issues.
> > >
> > > But we like having our own playground, so we'll get a micro-partition on
> > > the server. We could use a micro-partition setup on the i, that would be
> > > fantastic for developers. It would also make it easier to do
> > > client-server stuff and all the etcetera stuff.
> > >
> > > So we won't let the PC go very quickly, there is also the inertia factor.
> > >
> > > But then thin clients will start getting USB ports, like the article
> > > talked about, they will start sprouting all over. Besides the exotic
> > > devices in the article. storage devices will rack up local desktop
> > > storage again.
> > >
> > > So there you go.
> > >
> > > --aec
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >        
> > > > On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 2:27 PM, sjl<sjl_abc@xxxxxxxxxxx>   wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >          
> > > > > We have finally come full circle in the PC world:
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/microsoft-reinvents-the-mainframe/2184?tag=nl.e589
> > > > >
> > > > > "...Where Microsoft's ambition was once to put a PC on every desktop, in
> > > > > 2010 they'll settle for delivering a desktop to you over a network, on a
> > > > > device that might or might not be a PC. That's an enormous change."
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >            
> > >
> > >
> > >        
>