> -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Alan Altmark > Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 2:07 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Patents, Copyrights, Profits, Flex and Hercules > > On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:51:12 -0700, Dean Kent > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >PWD is for businesses, not hobbyists or students, or people who just want > >to tinker. Inventors are not always business people (and vice-versa). > >Therefore, PWD is really not the answer to the question that was posed. > > Sorry if I misinterpreted the thread. IBM has never (IMO) been > particularly interested in courting hobbyists. I know this is > disappointing, but there is a certain amount of risk and a certain amount > of benefit. TPTB have determined that there is insufficient benefit, so > no go.
The OP *did* ask about hobbyist and student licensing, not business, but see my other comments below for more on *business*. I do wonder if IBM ever considered that even if *they* did not want the headache/risk of serving individual hobbyists and students that there just might be people out in the wide world who would *gladly* set up and run service and support *businesses* (subscription or fee-for-service) to serve an active hobbyist/student mainframe community? See RedHat for example. They don't sell linux, they sell packaging and support of linux. <rant, which you may ignore completely> But then again IBM would not think like that, would they -- such a set of *businesses* are way too small to make anything like *real* money, so they aren't worth even thinking about. </rant> > >I think the attempted point is - how does one go from being a > >hobbyist/student/individual inventor to a commercial developer (ISV) in > >the mainframe world? There is no avenue for this, at present. The > >*only* route is to work for an established business. This takes us back > >to the question about hobbyists and inventors - who are not the best > >candidates for existing commercial development companies that want > >'efficient coders', not inventors. > > No avenue in what way? PWD allows for "Developing Products" in addition > to "Current Products". As long as you're actually in *business* to make > and sell a product (even if your seller is a business partner), PWD is the > right choice. Yes Alan, but PWD is no longer offering AFFORDABLE *business* pricing for the smaller ISV *businesses*. Check out the price of the rental offerings (there are NDA's involved) through your internal contacts -- then compare it to the pricing for a FLEX/ES Thinkpad setup. There is at least an order of magnitude increase in cost. Small *businesses* cannot afford that kind of price increase, but there aren't any other alternatives for non-linux mainframe development. <rant, which you may ignore completely> It seems that IBM has once again chosen to abandon small *businesses* (see abandonment of small VM/VSE shops in the 90's for prior examples), which IMHO will ultimately lead to its collapse, or at least to the complete demise of this mainframe business as we have known it all of our professional lives. </rant> Your prior comment about noise in this forum not being the right place to achieve changes is still correct. That has never stopped IBM-MAIN denizens from talking/ranting/etc. before, has it? :) Peter This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
