There has been so much email in the last 30 days
I'm not even sure if anyone has already mentioned
this on 3000-L or not, and I'm too lazy / busy to check
the archieves right now.....  Anyway, I don't recall that
it was, so:
 
For those who may not have access to Datamation,
there is a very interesting article starting on page 77
of the 15 April 96 issue.  Headline is:
 
"AS/400 - Port Your UNIX APPS to OS/400",
by Martin Taylor (who is listed as a "Programmer /
Analyst for UTC at Knoxville....   Hmmmm....  Do we
know anyone from UTC;  not Knoxville, maybe, but
somewhere else ??......   ;-)   ).
 
Here's a lead-in teaser (hoping that by quoting a
very small portion of the article and giving credit to
Datamation, I'm not violating the copyright laws):
 
"Think it's a strange idea to port your UNIX apps to
the AS/400 ?  Considering the cost is a lot lower,
maybe you should be asking yourself why you're
not."   ..............
 
"Is it feasible to port UNIX applications to OS/400 ?  It
may shound strange, but this idea has been growing
in popularity.  In fact, since the release of OS/400
version 3, release 1 last year, porting applications
from UNIX to OS/400 has becomes so popular that
IBM now maintains several Application Support
Centers and two Porting Centers to help customers
and software vendors with the conversion."    ...........
 
##  Does anyone see a little contrast with HP here ??..
 
"The AS/400 has been wildly popular.......  It's a stable
technology....  you could argue that it maintains itself....
It has a lower cost of ownership over a five-year
period than UNIX.  In fact, the question is not so much
Why switch? but Under what circumstances ? and
what's involved in the port ?  .........
 
"Most UNIX systems have very technical maintenance
requirements, necessitating a dedicated staff......."
 
"Help from IBM:  The folks at IBM are willing to help
developers port apps to the AS/400 (No surprise there)."
 
##  !!!!  (my quota for this month    (op. cit. and ibid)  ).......
 
"Except for upgrades to the new RISC processor
systems, recompiling has not even been required.  You
can't upgrade many UNIX applications without
recompiling - and sometimes rewriting - applications."
 
"A third benefit is that IBM has built in a fair amount of
UNIX savvy into OS/400."
 
##  The really striking thing about this article is that if
"AS/400" and "OS/400" were replaced by "HP 3000"
and "MPE/iX", in many cases the 3000 would come out
looking much better than the AS/400.  A few examples:
 
(1)    If go to AS/400, must switch from ASCII to EBCDIC.
 
(2)    OS/400 does not have a shell;
         MPE/iX has sys/hpbin/sh & etc.
 
(3)    On OS/400, DB2 is the "database of choice".
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 
While I'm on magazine articles, did anyone mention that
in one of the last two HP Professional issues (out of
reach for me right now), IBM took out a full two-page,
hard-hitting ad for the AS/400..........
 
/soapbox on/
 
......  When comparing overall public word and deed by
IBM on the AS/400 (i.e.:  outside the installed base) with
overall word and deed by HP at the corporate level
(i.e.;  above CSY) on the 3000, does anyone else get the
feeling that this is not just a case of HP selling world-
class sushi as raw fish, this has the feel of wanting to
keep the sushi in a freezer in the back room and not let
the rest of the world know that it even exists......
 
Hey HP, how about risking a little venture capital to at
least defrost the sushi in the microwave and put it on the
menu for the general public, like IBM does with the
AS/400 ??.....
 
/soapbox off/
 
Ken Sletten