System i Addict

In the end I may end up being the smartest dude in technology. I have been calling for this move for years and while I know if I yelled and said it long enough over time it would eventually happen. With new leaked screen shots of Windows 7 out and looking more confusing than ever, and an even better release that Linux hackers are starting to move to MacOSX. Is this the shift Apple has been looking for? Is the failure of Vista and the silent, growing success of MacOSX finally put us at the tipping point.

While I would break my heart to see Linux fall short, it’s time for something other than Windows. Windows is garbage and it’s failed and disappointed us for years and I think the consumer is know waking up and seeing it for what it’s worth.

I sure do hope this is going the direction I think it is and time will only tell.

If Mark Shearer would have told us that i V6R1 is buggy and crap but we are going to release it to you and it’s a work in progress, we as a community would have had his head on a stake!

For Microsoft to say to us that Vista is a work in progress is just ridiculous. It just shows you that they don’t have any respect for you the consumer or any pride in the product they deliver.

While I don’t think Vista is a work in progress and what they delivered is any better than Ubuntu Desktop, and can’t hold a candle to MacOSX. You see the problem is Microsoft is not a company that thinks you all out there are very smart. They assume you will buy a new PC and just love Vista. I am not sold on the idea, and was recently in a Best Buy where the sales “dude” tried to tell me how much he loved Vista and in a matter of minutes I had pointed out all of it’s problems as I saw it and he agreed with all of them, then I delivered the death blow, with all of these problems how can you call it a good product? He answered, “I ignore them.”

Ah, now we know what Microsoft users all have in common, instead of fixing the problems or improving them, they just ignore them. How very useful. If Ubuntu would have just ignore the issue or short coming with it’s desktop then where would we be? If Apple would have just kept putting out MacOS9 and never really made MacOSX where would we be? So when Microsoft creates a new OS and it’s plagued with problems the users simply love it because it’s new and flashy and the only thing most of them know how to install on the PC they just purchased and have learned to ignore all the problems. Interesting.

Don’t worry Mark we are not going to ignore anything in the new release of i or the new POWER hardware because as a community we expect more from IBM, but have always expected less from Microsoft.

It warms my heart to see IBM wanting to try out Apple hardware and software internally. The same thing happens when I think about Lotus 8 and the new “office software” it comes with as alternatives it makes me all happy inside. See the day is coming when Microsoft is going to start having to cut jobs, and rethink it’s business units. They will announce “restructuring plans” and how they are going to change the way we think. I know it’s not this year but it’s coming. The day SONY buys the XBOX division, and Microsoft starts selling off divisions like Great Plains and other company’s they don’t serve them well. All because big IT is not moving to Vista. IT people hate Vista and it’s not worth the RISK to make that change. Microsoft knows this so they are trying to force everyone hand and when they do that companies like IBM look for alternatives. Maybe they will bring back OS/2? Maybe the world will move to Apple, or is Linux about to have a real sunrise in this arena?

Thanks Steve for saying what we all have been thinking…..Vista is crap and you put it out before it was fully cooked. To bad the junkies that work at Best Buy are all drinking the Windows Kool-Aid and refuse to cal Vista crap.

In the past I have openly been very negative about Apple’s lack of Enterprise awareness. Apple does not seem to think they need to do anything at a corporate or enterprise level and that selling iPhone and iPods was going to make them a well rounded company. I have begged and pleaded with Apple to recognize that there is an entire market out there that needs addressing and they fail to deal with any of it. The failures of the xServe are apparent. The most reliable UNIX based server with the best set of tools and applications to manage it and they have not made a single significantly large sale into any large company with them. The xServe should be a no brainer for any company with server needs, but it’s not.

Then up pops the iPhone, and handy little device that seems to have won the hearth of the consumers but the IT people and business people can’t leverage the tool since it can’t be managed and you can’t build apps for it. Well that has all changed. On March 6th Apple released a program to do just that. You can now use your iPhone in some of the same ways you could a Blackberry.

One last request Apple, and you all out there know what this is going to be, call IBM and have them port Domino to MacOSX Server and then give Lotus Notes/Domino support via iPhone Enterprise Solutions.

Fake Steve Agrees too 

Now you all know I love UNIX, and you all know I love a Mac. So what happens when you put them both together? MacOSX Server!Just read the post by IT Business CA and find out for yourself. 

The cat is out of the bag. Lotus anno0ucned today that they will be supporting Ubuntu and Lotus Notes. This is great. Thank you, thank you , thank you Lotus Team!Also Lotus Notes 8.5 for MacOSX is on the way as well.LINK

Ed Brill Comments on Notes for Ubuntu. Thanks Ed - I knew you knew and couldn’t let us know! 

Just this week I had a techie look at me and make the old complaint that nothing runs on a Mac and they only own 3% of the market. I then pointed him out of the 80’s and gave him the usual tongue lashing!

ITWorld.com is reporting that in Japan, one of may favorite places other than the US, had Leopard sales push it into record territory.

“OS X Leopard, which is the first major update to the Apple operating system in more than two years, took a 53.9 percent share of the market, according to figures from Japan’s BCN. The company takes point-of-sales system data from 2,200 retailers across the country and uses that to estimate nationwide sales. “

So with that said. I am pretty happy. I would like to see what the numbers look like in the US right now. I have seen plenty of people in Airports this week with Mac and probably half of them has Leopard on them. The tide is still shifting. With the sorry showing Vista has had and the slow but steady movement Macs are having on home users it only a matter of time before MacOSX and Apple invade companies and IT Directors/CIOs of old are replaced with more educated, more open minded and more security conscious professionals.

It is dying under the Microsoft thumb, progress is slow, the Windows OS is pathetic, and it’s not moving in the right direction right now. Windows has to many limitations that large data centers can live with and over the next five years I predict and movement away from MS to more robust OSes.

I think this is positive movement in the right direction.

The Mac is Dead, long live the Mac!

UPDATE: So we are on thr way back from Charlotte, NC and we are in the ariport. In the section waiting to go to Airtran to Atlanta there were 10 people with laptops out not counting me. 7 of them were Macs and the other 3 were DELLs. It’s time for a shift. The world is shifting and small companies are moving to Apple while large lumbering companies are staying with XP, no VISTA. I am looking around right now waiting for the plan to Denver and it’s half and half. Five years ago you might have seen 1 Mac to a sea of other Windows laptops.

Installed it last night. I got to play with it for about 20 minutes. It’s worth every penny so far. Plus it’s pretty fast.

MacOSX comes out today. I am super excited about it. I think the new features are just what it will take to kill any ideas that Vista a good OS. Let me say, Vista is nothing close to a good OS, and MacOSX currently (10.4) as of this post is head and shoulders above what Vista is even close to doing. Vista is a sad excuses for Microsoft to sell more software. The Windows ME if you will of this decade.

Please if you need to order it I would ask that you get it from PowerMax.com and ask for Miaya please. Tell her I sent you and they will give you a Tee-Shirt and a Plush Leopard for the desk.

Link to PowerMax.com and MacOSX

So a few weeks back I blogged and called everyone in charge at Vision Solutions to get an interview and in that time no one has called me back, not even to tell me no. That is very rude and shows they don’t respect the community at large. I represent all of you and they know that so by not calling me back they of course don’t give a rats you know what about us, the people and members of the System i community. So let me say this is what you as customers should comes to expect from the fine Vision company.

So on Sept 7 they started a blog and posting something about HA and Banking, which I would like to point out they still have no idea about. We can get into that later…so with that said I know I posted a comment or two about the post, and they were of course a bit pointed but at the same time welcoming them to blogging. So far they have not posted anything new to the blog and also have not “approved” any comments. So I will come to some conclusions. First of all Visions Solutions is doing what we all expect from them, nothing!

They have always been a large lumbering company that has been unable to sell their own lump of software, so they purchased two other companies, tore them apart and punished them for being hard working until they quit rather than firing them with respect, and still can’t figure out how to sell their own software.

Lastly I urge you not to deal with the likes of Vision Solutions, people who used to run iTera and Lakeview are bailing out and off that sinking ship at a pretty nice clip. I got news the other day that the former owner of iTera has left and for some really good reasons which I have pointed out earlier in this post. Vision Solutions has turned his company, iTera, upside down. I have employees from all over each company calling me, emailing me and telling me the lackluster leadership that is coming out of Irvine California, home of Vision Solutions. They would rather people leave on their own then fire them with some type of package to take care of their families. I call that harassment and you can draw your own conclusions. What ever you call it, it’s just poor and sadly companies like Vision Solutions don’t care about people, then only care about making a profit and keeping the holding company happy.

Vision is bad and it would take a lot to convince me other wise. If I were looking at HA I would not be calling anyone associated with Vision Solutions. The decided to destroy the HA market in the System i and we should let them sink their own ship without any help from the System i Market. They are not good members of our community!

Shame on you Vision for doing what you have done. I hope that in the end some other company with morals and ethics comes in and purchases you and gets rid of the vermin that are destroying you and the lives of your employees. Karma is not something to be temped like you have over the last year!

Every time I post something “real” about Vision one of the Execs will call me and try to fix things and like a wimp I pull down the post, well not this time. If they do happen to call I am going to get the interview they have been promising me for the past year over and over again that I never seem to get.  I am tired of Vision ignoring the people the pander to. I am also not going to pull down another post because they call and promise me things that will never happen. I am a huge fan of the System i. Let me also define FAN, which is short for fanatic. While I am not huge about sports or other things people are fans of, I am a FAN of a few other things, I am a FAN about Apple, I am a FAN of Linux, I am a FAN of FreeBSD, and I am a Huge Fan of the System i, and as a FAN I see Vision Solutions as spoiler to my being a fanatic, more over they are trying as hard as they can to ruin the game we all admire and at the same time destroy what was once a very stable and competitive market.

This post is dedicated to all of the former and currently tortured employees of iTera, and Lakeview. You all worked your fingers to the bone only to be punished by Vision. I wish you all the best and would urge you to take your knowledge and skills and form a new HA company and never sell out to the like of a Vision.

While it’s not secret. Smart people use Macs! ergo I use a Mac!

In less than 9 days the next version of MacOSX is coming out. You need to see what Apple does with this while Windows Vista flounders I am going to bet this flies off of the shelves. I have my order in, do you?

Highlights:

• Finder - Not new but improved!
• Quicklook - New!
  
• Desktop - Not New either but way cooler!
• Spaces - Much needed for busy Macs
• Time Machine - Windows has this but Apple perfected it.
• Parental Controls - Only on the Mac!

See all the new features HERE.

I was doing a little looking around Google.com and found something that is neat. The trend for desktops in the world is going down for Windows and up for Ubuntu and MacOSX

Link to Data

Link to IBM Tip

Mac OS X is a powerful platform for Java™ development. While the Java development environment is fully integrated into Mac OS X, the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) brings a fully integrated Java development environment to Mac OS X that provides a consistent cross-platform experience. Discover how to use this environment to import existing Xcode projects into Eclipse, tweak key bindings, and integrate Eclipse with the Mac OS X-bundled Concurrent Versions System (CVS).

This is huge for Apple. I am just more than happy. Now all the HP and SUN advocates can shut it up. Not that I don’t like SUN or HP but I do get tired of them calling MacOSX not UNIX.

link to story

Sun helping port OO to Mac seems like a no brainer since every Sun person who I have run into has an Apple Laptop with them. They either run Sunfire workstations in the office and if you work remotely or are on the road you get an Apple laptop. Sun would of course only improve their own internal IT solution by helping with this. The sad part is it took over 5 years to get them on board, but that is why we love Sun they are always late to the party when it comes to technology. Hence they are not playing catchup all over the place in IT.

Information Week’s John C. Welch writes and interesting article this week about how he pitted the ever so stable and easy to use (My Words) MacOSX up against the every so bloated and virus laden(Again my words) Windows Vista.

I think this sums it up:

“Hidden behind all of this hoopla, however, is the fact that as much of an improvement Vista is over XP, its main competitor, Mac OS X, still stacks up really well — and even tops Vista in several important areas.”

So with that said I can also add without question MacOSX has been around since 2001 for the current Mac Computers, and if you go back and do a little history with UNIX and Apple then you will find that the original MacOSX has been around now for about 15+ years in some form or another. UNIX as we all know is a “business class” OS. Windows on the other hand should be asked to leave like you would a common thief or convict if he were in your office stealing things and causing all kinds of havoc. Why Windows is allowed to roam the halls of any company is beyond me, it really boils down to lazy Admins and even lazier IT staff unwilling to go the extra mile to use and OS that would keep things nice and secure, rather they would use the Fisher Price equivalent of OSs to run their multi-million dollar companies with a sub standard product…..

Oh did I get off on a rant again? Sorry!

I am going to point out a few of may favorite points in the article and then you can just read it and run out to your local Apple Store and get your own and avoid the virus update called Vista……oooops I did it again?

” While Vista is indeed a major update …..quite frankly, just Microsoft making up for lost time. “

“This means that while Mac OS X has been steadily evolving through 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4, and is now working towards 10.5,……When it was obvious the original Longhorn OS wasn’t going to happen, they took the Windows Server 2003 code base and used that for the basis of Vista. “

“Microsoft had two serious issues. First, they had to make this update of Windows revolutionary enough that it came close to justifying the delay. Second, they had to come up with something that would stand up well with its main competitor in the desktop OS market, Mac OS X.”

Really is Vista really on the same level as MacOSX? I really don’t think so and in fact I have looked at both and have not been overly impressed with what Microsoft Vista has become. I am not going to take the low road and call Vista a copy cat OS, because it is not, but we all know that since Microsoft released XP everything they have shown as new and innovative in Vista has been something that has either been in MacOSX since the start or was added in one of it’s later dot releases and it just screams that Windows Vista is just a culmination of what Windows users envy in MacOSX.

More fun little quotes:

“Long-delayed upgrade that has to account for almost 6 years of progress by its competitors”

“The other thing I keep noticing about Vista’s UI is how many times things just seem to be changed seemingly for no reason beyond “new version, gotta change stuff.” ”

” I’ve also been struck by how, even with all the notifications I get in Vista, how annoying it is to find basic information.”

“Another UI annoyance, and one I had hoped that Microsoft would have improved, is the hoops you have to jump through to get basic information from the OS.”

Like a pimple coming to a head:

“I could keep bringing up examples, but I think you get the idea. At the UI level, the human level, Vista is different far more often than it is better.”

I think he starts to show his Geek Side here:

“However, is it significantly, or even slightly better than Mac OS X? Maybe in a couple of low-level ways, like the randomizing memory address usage function, or being able to use USB memory sticks as additional RAM, but at the human level? Not even close.”

From a user stand point this is of no use to any Mom or Dad using Vista at home. It’s really more about Web, Email and typing a doc here and there, and with that said a company has the same problems. How do we make the desktop easy to use and the applications seamless or at least simple to maintain?

I think in the end we will all know MacOSX does it best and Windows just won the war based on lazy administration and adoption by software vendors….you would think they would have moved everything to MacOSX/UNIX long ago? Then again most Windows Admins think that UNIX/Linux is hard to learn….go figure. If it ain’t got a Wizard I can’t admin the server, that is what a Windows MSCE test should include. Don’t get me started on Windows Admins now. I don’t have time. It’s always nice to see that there people who call themselves Admins and really they are Wizard jockeys and haven’t a clue about how to Admin a server, much less figure out why something does what it does in Windows.
I think the last paragraph in the article makes owning a Mac make you feel good…..

“I’ve yet to see anything in Vista that blows away the Mac OS, even a version of the Mac OS that’s over a year old. Microsoft still can’t manage to make something simple and easy to use. Vista reeks of committee and design by massive consensus, while OS X shines from an intense focus on doing things in a simple, clear fashion and design for the user, not the programmer.”

Long live Xcode!

Link to article

I guess this is a big deal.

The last version of Notes 6.5 for MacOSX was in my opinion a problem at best and on IBM’s best day the support for it did leave a lot to be desired. I had 2 Macs in my last enviroment running Lotus Notes 6.5 and they both had plenty of issued that IBM support had no real good answer for and in most cases never fixed.

It was one of those moments when you think to yourself? Why does no one at IBM understand the Mac and how can they get away with not really supporting it? Reloading was the ussuall course of action with support. I think after a while you just give up, and that is what I did.

So if you have a Mac running MacOSX 10.4 you can now have the latest Notes Client. Yeah? Does that include Sametime intergration too?

Why is there no Sametime Client for MacOSX? Same goes for Linux? Don’t get me started or we will never get out of here.
Read all about the release here 

I know this is going to sound a bit harsh, but IBM and Lotus need to get Hannover out ahead of schedule and get rid of what is called Notes today. It’s ugly and boring and so over developed it’s hard to use. Now in the same breath so it Outlook but at least it’s got a nice look to it and the every day tasks are easy to use. Lotus Notes’ problem right now is Lotus Notes. Everyone at Lotus knows this but is afraid to say it out loud in fear of someone actually saying what every user is thinking.

Ed if you are reading this. I know you really probably could live without me and I know I am a pain in your ass, but you know what needs to be done. Stop tinkering around and stop making more bad Notes releases and get every developer who can say C++ on Hannover. It’s the only way to stop the problems with your current client.

Oh VISTAR is moving from Domino on iSeries (one of the most stable Mail and Application platforms) to Exchange. That’s over 5000 Employees and about 2000 Clients who are ditching Notes to move to Outlook/Exchange. The only reason I think they have not moved sooner with this plan is me, yep me, being the single Domino Admin, I gave Chris so much crap he preferred not to even deal with me on the subject of Lotus and that discussion and just wait until I either left or he could get AD installed and then Exchange would have been a “no brainier” according to Chris and Tim.

The other sad part is I think Lotus could stop the move but no one has knocked on the door over there in so long that they get the feeling IBM does not give a rats you know what about them. VISTAR spends millions with IBM every 3 years and no one except one person (iSeries Tech) darkens their doorstep more than once a year to see how things are going……badly if you company name is IBM.

Oh well that is all for now. Yeah IBM is thinking about Macs again….what about Lotus?