It’s the end of an era. I have been at the same client now for over a dozen years, but the economy and a large ERP project have taken their toll. Now there is no money to keep me on board. It’s been a good run, and I have seen a lot of stuff, but I can’t say I am not looking forward to seeing something new. Twelve years is a long time to be in the same place. When I first started IT consulting in Cincinnati, OH, I had six or seven different clients in the first two years; sometimes two at a time. It never ceases to amaze me the number of ways there are to approach a given problem, and I never tire of learning new things.
As I reflect on the last decade, I realize that I love working with the iSeries and i5/OS. You might say I have become somewhat of a bigot for that platform. I don’t know of any other platform that is as stable and reliable as the iSeries. It is easy to learn, easy to use, you plug it in and it works. Hardware and OS upgrades do not create a need for rebuilding or redesigning applications. The same box can safely serve multiple loads, and the OS is actually able to (and does) keep jobs from stepping on each other. Despite being on the cutting edge of technology, IBM i as it is now known has the ‘legacy’ tag.
As a result, IBM has merged the System i hardware with the System p, and launched Power Systems. The OS is your choice: AIX, IBM i, or Linux. That lets them continue to support i without having to build separate hardware for that ‘legacy’ platform. Oh, and by the way, when IBM reports sales numbers, the old System i hardware is still reported by itself, and being older technology, those sales numbers are in a freefall. System p numbers however, are reported combined with Power Systems, and include the numbers for all Power Systems whether they are being sold with IBM i, AIX, or Linux. To be honest, it isn’t the hardware that matters, but the operating system that gives a computer its character, but the reporting of the new Power Systems gives a false impression that customers are leaving IBM i in droves. Perception is reality, and IBM, intentionally or not, is killing off the i.
It isn’t just IBM though. There aren’t many programmers coming out of college that want to program using RPG. And everyone knows that IBM i can only use RPG against a DB2 database that really isn’t DB2. <sarcasm off> It is rare that you find Java, PHP, or MySQL running on an i. Even though Java has been available almost since it’s inception, and PHP has been available since i5/OS V5R3. Two releases of the OS later, people still as me if IBM still upgrades the operating system or the hardware. Yes but perception is reality. I still love the box, and the OS. It is as close to an appliance as anyone in the computer industry will ever get, while still being able to scale to mainframe proportions.
What is a poor RPG programmer to do? Learn Java, learn PHP, bring your skills into the 21st century. It is the end of an era, and you don’t want to be caught with the legacy tag.
As I reflect on the last decade, I realize that I love working with the iSeries and i5/OS. You might say I have become somewhat of a bigot for that platform. I don’t know of any other platform that is as stable and reliable as the iSeries. It is easy to learn, easy to use, you plug it in and it works. Hardware and OS upgrades do not create a need for rebuilding or redesigning applications. The same box can safely serve multiple loads, and the OS is actually able to (and does) keep jobs from stepping on each other. Despite being on the cutting edge of technology, IBM i as it is now known has the ‘legacy’ tag.
As a result, IBM has merged the System i hardware with the System p, and launched Power Systems. The OS is your choice: AIX, IBM i, or Linux. That lets them continue to support i without having to build separate hardware for that ‘legacy’ platform. Oh, and by the way, when IBM reports sales numbers, the old System i hardware is still reported by itself, and being older technology, those sales numbers are in a freefall. System p numbers however, are reported combined with Power Systems, and include the numbers for all Power Systems whether they are being sold with IBM i, AIX, or Linux. To be honest, it isn’t the hardware that matters, but the operating system that gives a computer its character, but the reporting of the new Power Systems gives a false impression that customers are leaving IBM i in droves. Perception is reality, and IBM, intentionally or not, is killing off the i.
It isn’t just IBM though. There aren’t many programmers coming out of college that want to program using RPG. And everyone knows that IBM i can only use RPG against a DB2 database that really isn’t DB2. <sarcasm off> It is rare that you find Java, PHP, or MySQL running on an i. Even though Java has been available almost since it’s inception, and PHP has been available since i5/OS V5R3. Two releases of the OS later, people still as me if IBM still upgrades the operating system or the hardware. Yes but perception is reality. I still love the box, and the OS. It is as close to an appliance as anyone in the computer industry will ever get, while still being able to scale to mainframe proportions.
What is a poor RPG programmer to do? Learn Java, learn PHP, bring your skills into the 21st century. It is the end of an era, and you don’t want to be caught with the legacy tag.
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