There was this smooth salesman. Man, he was smoother than chocolate cream pie. He represented a big, important company and presented a ton of testimonials. Everything the salesman said rang true: the comfort, the style, the speed, the panache. So I did it. I bought that luxury vehicle—lock, stock, and satellite navigation system.
And it was true. I could do things I never could do before. Not only could I get to a destination, I could arrive! That vehicle was bigger, better, faster, greater than anything I had imagined. Or was it?
I started to think of where I was trying to go, of my goals and objectives, and how I might meet them. I had to cross the water, and to do so, I needed to ford the river. So I raced up to the levy...and slammed on the brakes. I had found something my luxury vehicle could not do. Despondent was I, who had the task but no longer the tool.
I told you that story so that I may tell you this one: IBM has discontinued support of OV/400 and replaced it with Domino.
Domino may be a great product. I have seen demonstrations, and they are very good. But I haven’t actually used the product. None of my clients have it; none of them have expressed an interest in obtaining it; none of them need what Domino offers; but all of them use OV/400! Not that these shops use OV/400 to its fullest capabilities. They don’t use it for scheduling or email; they don’t even use OV/400 for the bulk of their word processing; but word processing is why they keep OV/400, and word processing is why they use it.
The obvious question is why use OV/400 for word processing when so many better word processors are out there? The answer is integration! Each shop, in its own way, uses the Merge Document (MRGDOC) command to print documents combined with values from other AS/400 objects. Fields entered in an interactive program can be sent as parameters to MRGDOC to print a single document. Work files may be created to multiple variants of the same document. These processes take place within the normal, native AS/400 environment. A user need not be hooked up to a LAN or even have a PC. Furthermore, MRGDOC may be integrated into a larger CL program, being one step of a multistep process. You don’t need to stop the process and switch to a PC word processor to actuate the merge. The merge process itself may be submitted to batch, thereby making the overall process transparent to the end user. This goes beyond ease of use; it is actually a case of instant document!
So, IBM plans to pull the support plug on this useful tool and replace it with Domino. But Domino can’t do what MRGDOC can. And in order to run Domino, you need a LAN. How does IBM plan to explain this to shops that use OV/400 but don’t have a LAN?
In deciding to no longer support OV/400, perhaps IBM is responding to complaints about the product: OV/400 is difficult to use; it’s ancient history; it’s ugly. All that’s true, but whose fault is that? IBM has done little or nothing to improve the usability, functionality, or interface of OV/400 since its inception.
For a while, it seemed that others would capture the AS/400 word processing market. Corel developed a version of WordPerfect for the AS/400. It was discontinued in the early ’90s. Few people knew about it; even fewer cared. Even spreadsheet packages were marketed for the AS/400. Did you know about them? Most didn’t.
OV/400 has its shortcomings, but Domino has problems, too. For one, it is difficult to classify. Domino does a great many things, but if you ask specifically what sort of product Domino is, you may get the answer that Domino does a great many things. One common refrain is that Domino is the Lotus Notes Web enabler. Yeah, that and a buck and a half get me into the New York City subway.
While it might sound as if I do not like Domino, nothing can be further from the truth. I have seen the Domino demos using the AS/400 as a server. The Web page results and functionality are impressive. However, the demos I attended used a retail business as the basis of the demo. My clients aren’t retail, and those in management expressed no interest in obtaining Domino for their shops. On the other hand, all of these shops share a concern about support for OV/400 being dropped with V4R4.
I talked to a few IBMers about the functionality of Domino. I asked them if Domino has, or would have, the functionality currently offered by the 13-year-old OV/400. They told me that they would look into the matter and get back to me. Hey, guys, all of us OV/400 users have just driven our Domino cars into the river—and we’re still waiting!
Author’s Note: IBM recently announced that it will continue support of OV/400 for one more release.
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