Sources also say a host of AS/400 software announcements are coming down the pipeline, which may be rolled into the big ES/9000, distributed data launch due in September. The new release of the OS/400 – release 2.1.1 – will conform to the first three levels of the Posix definition. Meanwhile, IBM will be launching at least three major software products: Repository/400, Code/400 and Manage/400. The last will take code from personal computers to the AS/400 to create management code for the AS/400 to run local area networks – indeed, Novell Inc engineers are already at work at Rochester, Minnesota to prepare the AS/400 for a marketing push as a file server running Portable NetWare. There is a lot of agent discontent over the level of support for software development on the AS/400 and some push for IBM to provide its own software engineering environment for the system. These software development problems are being compounded by an apparent reluctance by IBM to promote programming on the AS/400 in anything other than the relatively Unix-hostile RPG and Cobol. However, IBM is said to have tentatively committed to X Window for the AS/400.
