2010/3/8 Ian Clark <[email protected]>: > pick a cheaper (and often better) product, because fewer points are > better than no points at all. > > Now someone tell me that my information is antiquated and that nothing > like that happens these days.
Well... IBM wanted to sell MVS, SNA, AS/400, Token ring, Software more or less given away because the sale was hardware (99%) and that was 100% IBM hardware. Last week they were selling VM, TCP/IP, Ethernet, Linux, support tools for anyones hardware, IBM is mostly service and software and hardware is of much less importance. I would not be surprised to see them actively selling APL2 soon. Possibly renamed it to something else. I have not tried IBM Linux myself but I have always been told before now in this thread that I could just move any Linux application to their Linux without change. I actually asked a salesperson if this was the same Linux as I have on my PC and I was told yes it is the same. Things do change and competition is forcing even the biggest companies to change tactics and lower prices. Google has been leading the way making money on the web selling advertisements and more or less giving away software. M$ and IBM and others are trying to follow suit and as you say "fewer points are better than no points at all." Also IBM and M$ are laying off people and moving operations to cheaper countries. There used to be no-firing rule. J is coming from the other direction having taken the price down to 0 a long time ago and not having many employees so can we help J get money from the web? Maybe selling advertisement? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
