6 ms·

I love it when job interview pitches fall flat like that. Many years ago, I had a job offer from IBM for a class of server I wasn't familiar with. The guy expla

I love it when job interview pitches fall flat like that. Many years ago, I had a job offer from IBM for a class of server I wasn't familiar with. The guy explained it to me like this: "You see, desktops these days are running Linux, and mainframes are running (IBM OS something?). We represent a class of server bigger than desktops but smaller than mainframes. It's an exciting space. The desktop class of PCs are handling bigger and bigger workloads every day, and the mainframes are getting cheaper and smaller all the time, too...." and then he sort of trailed off and we sat quietly for a few seconds, and then he started talking about the nice office.

nl 6y ago
IBM "Midrange", aka AS/400: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i They were an interesting - but dead - sideline of computing evolution. I never used one, but they had a interesting object-based (instead of file based) operating system.
- janosett 6y ago
  A friend used one of these (the shorter models) as a coffee table -- I distinctly remember how hard it was to move the big, dense metal cube in and out of his room!
- neurostimulant 6y ago
  My only experience on them was interacting with some API hosted in an AS/400 via FTP protocol. Felt like I was going back to the 90s.
ablekh 6y ago
If my guess is correct, it seems that you have missed a chance to work on relatively popular AS/400 servers ... :-)
- CobrastanJorji 6y ago
  I have no idea, but the engineer I was talking to was describing the unique challenge of working with the OS, as it was the sole system compiled in that language, and how about half of the bugs they fixed were OS bugs and the other half were compiler bugs, and I ran away from there as fast as I could. This would've been somewhere around 2005, so it could've been.
  - ablekh 6y ago
    I see. Yeah, it sounds pretty scary. Well, hopefully, the job that you have accepted instead of that one has been much better.
- kovek 6y ago
  Could you explain why are AS/400 relatively popular? I don't read much about these mainframes, and am a user of Personal Computers (macbook, thinkpad) and EC2 instances (something that runs Linux?) , so I am not sure what AS/400 servers are, but I'd love to learn more!
  - freeone3000 6y ago
    "Popular" was a touch sarcastic. AS/400s were most recently called the IBM system I, and are now a discontinued product. IBM still sells mainframes, and they have discontinued the AS/400.
    - Ghostp4ntsRex 6y ago
      They are most certainly not a discontinued product. We just purchased a brand new Power9 server at work. The model we purchased was just released. Everyone at work still calls it an AS400. They are bulletproof and run many large businesses today. They are also not mainframes but are a class of machines called minicomputers.
      - freeone3000 6y ago
        IBM Power Series is closer to the RS6000, no? Running real AIX and having a full JCL makes them a far sight better than the RPGII stuff on the AS/400. Night and day.
    - ablekh 6y ago
      IBM AS/400 is not discontinued, but rather has been rebranded as IBM Power System: https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/power https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/power.
  - ablekh 6y ago
    Well, by "relatively popular" I meant that AS/400 servers (aka AS400 or IBM iSeries or IBM System i: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i) have been quite popular mostly only within certain industries and/or niches (e.g., banking, insurance, manufacturing, supply chain). They are still widely used there for legacy reasons, however demand for AS/400 developers (which implies proficiency in RPG language, since, as I understand, most legacy applications are written in RPG: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG) is tiny; so, it's a good language to know to potentially expect a relatively high salary or consulting rate (hello, Delphi!), but a dead end for IT career growth. I would also venture to guess that some (many? most?) companies currently using AS/400 plan to migrate their legacy applications to the cloud.
cfontes 6y ago
As a former IBMer you missed nothing. IBM is a terrible work place if you are technically inclined, if you are a slime ball of a manager it’s perfect for you.
selimthegrim 6y ago
I guess it wasn't a real country after all.

nl 6y ago

IBM "Midrange", aka AS/400: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i They were an interesting - but dead - sideline of computing evolution. I never used one, but they had a interesting object-based (instead of file based) operating system.

janosett 6y ago
A friend used one of these (the shorter models) as a coffee table -- I distinctly remember how hard it was to move the big, dense metal cube in and out of his room!
neurostimulant 6y ago
My only experience on them was interacting with some API hosted in an AS/400 via FTP protocol. Felt like I was going back to the 90s.

ablekh 6y ago

If my guess is correct, it seems that you have missed a chance to work on relatively popular AS/400 servers ... :-)

CobrastanJorji 6y ago
I have no idea, but the engineer I was talking to was describing the unique challenge of working with the OS, as it was the sole system compiled in that language, and how about half of the bugs they fixed were OS bugs and the other half were compiler bugs, and I ran away from there as fast as I could. This would've been somewhere around 2005, so it could've been.
- ablekh 6y ago
  I see. Yeah, it sounds pretty scary. Well, hopefully, the job that you have accepted instead of that one has been much better.
kovek 6y ago
Could you explain why are AS/400 relatively popular? I don't read much about these mainframes, and am a user of Personal Computers (macbook, thinkpad) and EC2 instances (something that runs Linux?) , so I am not sure what AS/400 servers are, but I'd love to learn more!
- freeone3000 6y ago
  "Popular" was a touch sarcastic. AS/400s were most recently called the IBM system I, and are now a discontinued product. IBM still sells mainframes, and they have discontinued the AS/400.
  - Ghostp4ntsRex 6y ago
    They are most certainly not a discontinued product. We just purchased a brand new Power9 server at work. The model we purchased was just released. Everyone at work still calls it an AS400. They are bulletproof and run many large businesses today. They are also not mainframes but are a class of machines called minicomputers.
    - freeone3000 6y ago
      IBM Power Series is closer to the RS6000, no? Running real AIX and having a full JCL makes them a far sight better than the RPGII stuff on the AS/400. Night and day.
  - ablekh 6y ago
    IBM AS/400 is not discontinued, but rather has been rebranded as IBM Power System: https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/power https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/power.
- ablekh 6y ago
  Well, by "relatively popular" I meant that AS/400 servers (aka AS400 or IBM iSeries or IBM System i: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i) have been quite popular mostly only within certain industries and/or niches (e.g., banking, insurance, manufacturing, supply chain). They are still widely used there for legacy reasons, however demand for AS/400 developers (which implies proficiency in RPG language, since, as I understand, most legacy applications are written in RPG: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG) is tiny; so, it's a good language to know to potentially expect a relatively high salary or consulting rate (hello, Delphi!), but a dead end for IT career growth. I would also venture to guess that some (many? most?) companies currently using AS/400 plan to migrate their legacy applications to the cloud.

cfontes 6y ago

As a former IBMer you missed nothing. IBM is a terrible work place if you are technically inclined, if you are a slime ball of a manager it’s perfect for you.

selimthegrim 6y ago

I guess it wasn't a real country after all.