System iNetwork

February 2007

February 6, 2007 8:25 PM

We'll do that if Windows becomes popular

I was going to discuss WSU and learning RPG this week. But, something rather timely has derailed my well-planned (yuk-yuk) editorial schedule. We'll get back to WSU and RPG very soon. The timely issue reminds me of something I heard in IBM's Toronto language lab office, and, to this day, is still echoed, if not in exact words, in actions by both Toronto and Rochester. We'll get to that in a moment, but first the timely issue that made me think of this.

Check out Wal-Mart's new online video download service. Check it first with Internet Explorer. Looks great. Check it next with FireFox (if you don't have FireFox, you're crazy! It is vastly superior to IE.) Amazingly, the Wal-Mark site doesn't render at all with FireFox. It simply shows a curt message that says "Unsupported browser." (Early last week it didn't even do that--FireFox users simply saw a hodge-podge of unorderly HTML.) Depending on the survey you believe, FireFox commands anywhere from 11% to 31% of the browser marketplace. And certainly a much higher percentage of those with the technical savyy and confidence to purchase full-length videos online.

It's amazing to me that the almighty Wal-Mart would thumb its nose so directly at FireFox, even for the beta version of its video downloads site. Certainly FireFox isn't a market leader, but it clearly has enough of a user base to matter. None of us would build IE-specific Internet-based apps. In the enterprise, with its business partners and vendors, and even for IT technologies (trying to get your arms around EDI, do what Wal-Mart does), whatever Wal-Mart says goes. Could it be that Wal-Mart thinks it holds such sway with consumers as well? I don't think so.This will be fixed quickly. It's almost as though Wal-Mart sat back and said, "We'll support FireFox when FireFox is popular."

Trying to use FireFox with Wal-Mark's video site reminded of Rochester and Toronto. Back in 95, I went to Toronto to see how progress was coming with IBM's VisualAge for RPG. This was back during IBM's very staunch OS/2 commitment period. You remember those days, back when virtually no one was using OS/2 but IBM. This was during the time that MS was rolling WIndows 95 out and Bill Gate's personal fortune was skyrocketing--he first topped Forbes list of richest Americans two years prior (in 1993). By this time, virtually every desktop in the world was using Windows.

I asked the VisualAge for RPG team when the product would support Windows. With a straight face, they looked at me and said, "We'll do that if Windows becomes popular." Great googly moogly! What were these boneheads thinking?

Toronto and Rochester's persistent head-in-the-sand attitude about Windows pervades many issues with the iSeries (many of which we'll dig into in the coming months) that exist yet today. I wonder what the future would have held had IBM (Rochester and Toronto specifically) used just a little more foresight and embraced iSeries-Windows interoperability with more than a token effort.

As an interesting footnote, 12 years later, MS has more than twice the market value of IBM and makes nearly twice what IBM makes.

So, listen up Wal-Mart, learn from IBM's mistakes. Get your head out of the sand. Embrace interoperability.

rp

8 March update: Eagle-eye Pat Landrum noticed today that Wal-Mart's video site is now FireFox friendly. I don't think it got fixed because the WalMart suits read this entry! But, just in case they did, here's a few other suggestions: clean up those aisles, quit stomping little guys out of business, and fer-cryin out loud. get rid of those damned happy faces. Sorry for the lack of entries lately--been traveling but back on the keyboard soon.

Posted by rpence on February 6, 2007 at 8:25 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack