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IBM Makes Server OS Name Change, Consolidates Platforms

IBM 8 Comments

IBM is discontinuing the System p and System i server brands and changing the name of the i5/OS operating system to “i” or “i for business.” An IT Jungle article notes that “servers developed and manufactured by its newly christened Power Systems division with the name–drum roll please–“Power.” As in Power 520, Power 550, Power 570, and Power 595, whether the machine is running AIX, Linux, or the operating system formerly known as i5/OS.”

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8 Comments

  1. 2008-04-08 4:52 pm
    mabhatter

    Last week they were going to make it AS\400 again.

    http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs040108-story02.html

    What happened to that? Does that mean I need new certifications? What do I put on my Resume now? (AS\400, eServer, iSeries, System i?)

    Most importantly will the hardware premium for iSeries “enabled” boards be removed versus the pSeries counterparts (same board but different firmware)?

    Edited 2008-04-08 16:54 UTC

    • 2008-04-08 5:21 pm
      bousozoku

      Last week they were going to make it AS\400 again.

      http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs040108-story02.html

      What happened to that? Does that mean I need new certifications? What do I put on my Resume now? (AS\400, eServer, iSeries, System i?)

      Most importantly will the hardware premium for iSeries “enabled” boards be removed versus the pSeries counterparts (same board but different firmware)?

      You don’t know how to write AS/400 or how to tell an April Fool’s story? 😉 I suppose you don’t know the one about the AS/500 that only allowed execution but no development, either.

  2. 2008-04-08 6:39 pm
    jwwf

    Lets see, in less than a decade we have had:

    OS/400 -> i/OS -> i5/OS -> i [for business] [V][6][R1]?

    This is pointless. Why give a stable platform such an unstable name? Regardless, for me and almost everyone I work with, it’s still OS/400.

    On the other hand, the consolidation of hardware SKUs is a very good thing, I think.

    • 2008-04-08 6:48 pm
      Wes Felter

      Gotta keep those marketing people employed. The hardware has gone through the same churn: RS/6000, pSeries, System p, Power.

    • 2008-04-08 9:36 pm
      bsd_geek

      Yeah, I’m tired of the name changes too. I also still call it an AS/400 for the system, OS/400 for the OS, and DB2/400 for the integrated database.

      Since I’ve been here (9 years), we’ve gone from a 620 -> 720 -> 810 -> 520. It’s been one of the most reliable systems I’ve ever worked with. It requires minimal maintenance and just does it job.

      I just wish IBM made data access using Perl, PHP, or anything else for that matter from Open Source operating systems (namely anything BSD) easier. Hell, I think “not easy” and IBM are synonymous. Sure, I can probably do things “easier” if I ran Linux along side it but I’d rather not.

      We tried Webfacing once many years ago. That was atrocious. Websphere brought it down to a crawl too. Right now, the RPG guys are using RPGsp and web development for them is much quicker, and the pages run really fast too.

      Anyway – it may be a bitch to develop for, but it’s pretty damn reliable.

  3. 2008-04-08 8:15 pm
    ari-free

    I think it should be renamed to the “Love Symbol #2” formerly known as Prince, but fortunately I don’t get to make these decisions

  4. 2008-04-09 6:54 pm
    dlundh

    AS/400 and OS/400 are easy to google. i5/OS doesn’t bring up as many hits but is still pretty useful. pSeries and iSeries works too. System p and System i are almost hopeless and now with i 6.1, no really, i 6.1 I don’t even know where to begin.

    It’s not like the AS/400 needs to be less visible. It is a very solid platform and should it break down it’s very easy to restore to new hardware – it desereves a better fate than being named i 6.1 and becoming unsearchable.