I just got laid off from an operator position at a large, old company that has invested a lot of time and money into their IBM AS/400's. Not exactly mainframes, but it's the same idea. They have been there forever, they're doing their job, etc. No problems with the machines at all. The only problem is that the developers are nearly all in their 60's and will probably retire soon. And most of this generation (and probably the last one) don't even want to look at anything in COBOL, RPG, CL, or whatever the system's applications are developed with, much less make it a career. Eventually these things will die because nobody will know what to do with them. In 10 years it will be damn near impossible to find people who will work with anything that isn't GUI-based.
Chris
Have they looked into the effect of all the compilations CD's that are out now? I'm sure the artists get paid to have their song featured on "Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 235", but it probably also puts a big dent in the total sales of that artist's CD.
Slashdot Mirror
The company I worked for gave my entire department pink slips for Christmas... and we even got 'em a couple of months early.
Chris
I just got laid off from an operator position at a large, old company that has invested a lot of time and money into their IBM AS/400's. Not exactly mainframes, but it's the same idea. They have been there forever, they're doing their job, etc. No problems with the machines at all. The only problem is that the developers are nearly all in their 60's and will probably retire soon. And most of this generation (and probably the last one) don't even want to look at anything in COBOL, RPG, CL, or whatever the system's applications are developed with, much less make it a career. Eventually these things will die because nobody will know what to do with them. In 10 years it will be damn near impossible to find people who will work with anything that isn't GUI-based. Chris
Have they looked into the effect of all the compilations CD's that are out now? I'm sure the artists get paid to have their song featured on "Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 235", but it probably also puts a big dent in the total sales of that artist's CD.