Roger Bowler wrote:
On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:31:16 -0500, John P. Baker wrote:
I know that there are a lot of people who disagree with IBM in its ongoing
dispute with PSI, but I feel that IBM is on solid ground. PSI didn't spend
tens of billions of dollars on R&D. IBM did. IBM should not have to give
the fruits of those efforts to a latecomer looking to make a quick buck.
The money which IBM spent on R&D came from the sales of mainframe computers
to the companies which run the banking, transportation, manufacturing, and
administrative systems which we all rely on. The revenues of those companies
comes from the users of those systems. IBM didn't pay for the R&D. We did.
S/390-based technology is critical to the functioning of our society. IBM
does not have the right to keep society-critical technology secret, nor to
hold society to ransom by preventing competitors from producing compatible
systems.
We have a right to expect that the hardware and software to drive these
critical systems will always remain available. A competitive marketplace
with a choice of suppliers is the way to ensure that the continued
availability of mainframe technology is not dependent on the short-term
interests of IBM profitability.
Be very careful with using the word "rights"; there are
no a priori, universal "rights" anywhere. You might be
more accurate to state:
We have an expectation that the hardware and software
to drive these critical systems will always remain
available.
But you don't have the "right" to force that this
will always be the way things are.
For many years I trusted IBM to honour its obligations to society.
And what obligations are those?
Recent
events led me to believe that this trust was misplaced. When IBM pulled the
rug out from under the independent software vendors in the autumn of 2006,
because the emulation technology in their IBM-supplied development systems
got in the way of the IBM vs PSI litigation, it showed that however
benevolent IBM may appear to be, in the end IBM's interests override those
of the customer.
Ref: http://www.tech-news.com/another/ap200703b.html
Ref: http://www.tech-news.com/another/ap200704b.html
Things change. Some of the changes I don't like; some
I do like; the others I'm indifferent to. But most
changes are out of my control. I control only my
response to the changes I encounter.
Regards,
Roger Bowler
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rbowler
Hercules "the people's mainframe"
Kind regards,
-Steve Comstock
The Trainer's Friend, Inc.
303-393-8716
http://www.trainersfriend.com
z/OS Application development made easier
* Our classes include
+ How things work
+ Programming examples with realistic applications
+ Starter / skeleton code
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