On 5 April 2015 at 09:15, Booth Martin <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The cost seems to be a factor. What is the cost? A thousand dollars
one-time cost? Is there an annual maintenance fee? What happens if
maintenance is dropped?
There is a one-time purchase cost. It varies on upgrade / entitlement
/ business partner.
There is an annual maintenance cost.
If one stops paying the maintenance, one stops getting support.
Support includes future upgrades. Such as 8.5 to 9.0 to 9.1 for which
we paid no additional one time fee; merely the continuing SWMA.
This isn't unique to RDi - this is how IBM has always charged us for software.
Lots of unanswered costs about the real cost of RDi. Yet decisions are being
made based on the lack of information.
That seems odd, especially among this group.
Well, this group is RPG developers. Few of us are responsible for
cutting the check to IBM. Here is a question this group might ponder
regarding software costs vs ROI.
Given for cost:
L = current number of IBM i Access licences
N = number of users who need chargeable features other than 5250 (like
File Transfer)
W = number of users who could be switched from IBM's chargeable 5250
emulator to the fully free tn5250
Savings = L - W, or,
Necessary Cost = N
The ROI part of the equation may be just as enigmatic. I exclusively
use the open source tn5250 and don't miss File Transfer at all.
Imagine this exercise: Change the properties of the desktop link to
point to tn5250 instead of IBM i Access. How many would call telling
you that they can no longer do X, where X is a feature of IBM i Access
that is unavailable in alternative emulators?
--buck
Bonus ponder: When you think of the cost of SEU, are you including the
IBM i Access for Windows expense?
midrange.com
