IBM Gives i5/OS V5R4 a New Name--i 5.4

Published: September 23, 2008

by Alex Woodie

What's in a name? Apparently not much, if you're IBM, which now seems intent on rewriting history by eliminating some references to the i5/OS operating system from its Web site.

In recent months, IBM has modified its Global Solutions Directory Web page to align with the company's latest naming strategy for the server product from Rochester, Minnesota.

It used to be that you could see which third-party applications were certified to run on i5/OS V5R4, which was the release of the operating system before i 6.1 was launched earlier this year, and the only operating system to ever be called i5/OS at launch.

But at some point, an IBMer eliminated the reference to i5/OS V5R4 and replaced it with i 5.4, an obvious reference to the current operating system, but an incorrect one.

Similarly poor recollection of the product's history is evident in that page's reference to i5/OS V5R3. While many in the industry, at some time or another, referred to V5R3 as i5/OS, it was originally christened as OS/400, and in fact was the last release of that venerable operating system under the "OS/400" name.

While IBM has been known to practice a little revisionist history with its products now and again (and after all, they are its products), it wouldn't seem to serve anybody by eliminating every reference to the '400, and putting a lower case "i" in front of it.

Perhaps it's only a matter of time before this revisionism extends to CPF, the S/38's operating system, and SSP, the S/36's operating system. Anybody up for a little i38 or i36?

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