Re: Offer to access IBM i (at version 7) to produce Open Source software and API examples

[Henrik RÃtzou <hr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ThorbjÃrn,

first of all - I'm teasing Aaron, because he and I always tends to discuss
what is free
and what isn't - if it is not licensing, then it is prices ;-)

As I stated the discussed offer to Open Sources is cheaper than to pay for
the power
consumtion, even if IBM gave you a machine for free.

So does free actually exist ? Or do anybody think that because somebody
gives you
a hand, the arm and the body is automaticall free as well ?

Running any serious Open Source project isn't free at all. In small project
you may be
able to borrow a customers test system, but in larger project that has to
have demo
systems exposed to users on the net and even other (for the customer unknown
people)
on the system, no or few customers wants to have their test environment
exposed to that,
you either has to have your own mashine or host it somewhere.

IBM VLP doen't offer that, others more commercial hosting centers does it to
a much
higher price, having your own machine is also expensive - but iDevCloud does
this at
a very low price.

And if anybody thinks, just because there was an free IBM i test service,
that anybody
without IBM i experience and knowledge would use it, I think they have to
rethink. The
native structure of IBM i is so different from any other platform, so
without basic knowledge
they wouldn't come very far and probably leave the partition inactive when
they saw the first
5250 screen.
IMHO iDevCloud covers exatly what Aaron and others discussed ealier in this
forum
where the pro and cons of a shared machine owned by a coorporative was
discussed,
and you could ask yourself if such a construction would be free for the
participants,
would it be more flexible and/or would it be cheaper ?
In fact the cooporative thought has been discussed for years amoung small
ISV's in
Denmark - and it always comes down to the discussion of who has to pay what
and
the list of arguments why one should have the service cheaper than one's
fellowman
is as long as a month of sundays.

iDevCloud is a much more feasable construction, because you can "buy" what
you
need and expand or leave according to your needs.

/Henrik