In fact, I typed this article on a Windows 10 PC and can tell you that I, for one, really do prefer it to Windows 8. And do you think they will go to Windows 8? I don’t. This means that in around two years time from now, you can expect companies to start move their users off Windows 7. But Windows 7 has an expiry date itself, 2020, and that is less than five years away. It is pretty much accepted that Windows 8 has not been well received by business, with Windows 7 being the platform of choice for most companies using IBM i. Instead, it would like us all to move over the new Java-based client, IBM i Access Client Solutions. In short, IBM does not plan to support Windows 10.

“IBM does not plan to support IBM i Access for Windows on more recent Windows operating systems than indicated on the web page”. This is where I have to draw your attention back to the wording. Windows 10 hasn’t been formally released yet. The web page in question is the IBM iAccess for Windows Supported OS List which goes on to list Windows operating systems up to and including Windows 8.1. The replacement product is IBM i Access Client Solutions, which includes 5250 emulation, data transfer, printer output, console support, and more.” What IBM says is: “IBM does not plan to support IBM i Access for Windows on more recent Windows operating systems than indicated on the web page. Your current software will still run tomorrow and will work with both currently-supported and new releases of IBM i. And don’t panic, it is not pulling the product. When IBM released IBM i v7.2, it still shipped with the v7.1 version of the IBM i Access for Windows client. I suppose this should not really have come as such a shock. What this actually translates as is: “We are not putting any more effort into developing this product, so start looking for another solution.” Now, those of you that don’t speak IBM’s language might think that this was IBM finally claiming to make this program more stable and so less likely to crash. Love it or hate it, over the last 20 years we have all grown used to it and so when I was digging through the detail of the latest IBM i announcements (v7.1 TR10 and v7.2 TR2), it was with some shock I found an entry entitled “IBM i Access for Windows client stabilisation”.

Now its latest name, IBM i Access for Windows, would seem to be its last. It has been known as many things over the years: PC Support, Personal Communications, Client Access, iSeries Access.

Ibm i access client solutions as400