Thursday, February 18, 2016

Steve Will talks of future TRs and releases

In the past few months I have written about sightings suggesting that a new release, IBM i 7.3, might be coming:

Steve Will, IBM i's Chief Architect, wrote a post on the "You and i" blog titled "Signs and Portents for IBM i Announcements". In it he talked, in general terms, about Technology Refreshes and future releases:

If you've been following our release cadence (Technology Refreshes every spring and fall) you might be expecting another TR announcement soon–and you'd be right–but you might not expect a major release for another year or two. After all, there was a four-year gap between 7.1 and 7.2.

On the other hand, if you've been watching closely, you might be expecting something bigger. There are signs. They might not be obvious, but they are there. And then there are things we haven't explicitly said yet, but it's time to do so. All these little signs might cause a person to say "Hmmmm. I better watch this space; something's coming." Signs. Signs and Portents.

Is he acknowledging what I have been saying about a new release is coming soon?

Later he writes:

Web Pages. Again, I'm not announcing anything, mind you. A customer was poking around, looking in places people don't usually go unless we point them out, and he came across a web page that doesn't have a "12" but has a "3." [ ... ] The same person pointed to another web page which might possibly hint at something coming. (If you want to see the web page, you should probably click on that link soon–we might have to take it down once certain people see this blog post. ...)

Is he referring to last month's post More proof IBM i 7.3 is coming?

So, there you have it. Without actually announcing anything, I am telling to you to watch this space. And I am also encouraging you to look for opportunities–such as COMMON's Annual Conference in New Orleans in May–to spend some time learning about new stuff this year.

Is confirming what I expected? There will be an announcement about a new release would come at this year's COMMON annual conference. We will just have to wait, keep looking for other signs of a coming release, and be patient until May.

I am just pleased to know that some of the "higher ups" at IBM are reading this blog, and consider what is says as worthy of a response.

You can read Steve's post here.

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