Charles, Many years ago I sat in a vendor presentation peddling a particular application geared for the healthcare industry. They were competing for business against a different application whose software happened to run on MVS (yes, back in those days). The vendor kept going on and on about how their application system was "open" and the MVS one was closed and proprietary. About half way through his spiel I stopped him and made three points and then a question.
1. Yours requires brand X hardware to run on, and hardware line x1 within this brand hardware, the competition requires an IBM mainframe. 2. Yours requires brand X flavor of UNIX, at a specific level, the competition requires MVS. 3. Yours requires brand Y database manager to run the software, the competition doesn't need a database, it runs on VSAM files. How is it that yours is open and the competition is closed and proprietary? About that time the hardware rep was starting to come across the table to physically attack me until his software counterpart grabbed him and told him to sit down. Rex -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Mills Sent: Friday, September 11, 2015 11:29 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Term "Open Systems" (as Sometimes Currently Used) is Dead -- Who's with Me? > Open was tossed about for any non-mainframe architecture Not my experience. I have always understood the popular usage to be as a synonym for 'nix -- sometimes in specific CONTRAST to Windows. Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of J O Skip Robinson Sent: Friday, September 11, 2015 9:13 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Term "Open Systems" (as Sometimes Currently Used) is Dead -- Who's with Me? Years ago I was disabused of the notion that Open meant 'open' by the normal English definition. There was some problem with an application. I suggested moving it to different hardware. They scoffed at my naiveté. The application would not run on any other hardware. That was Windows, not Unix, but at the time Open was tossed about for any non-mainframe architecture. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN The information contained in this message is confidential, protected from disclosure and may be legally privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, distribution, copying, or any action taken or action omitted in reliance on it, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to this message and destroy the material in its entirety, whether in electronic or hard copy format. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
