> most people's experience with IBM isn't positive.
That does not reflect my or my friends experience. Once one gets beyond the local representatives, service for me always was exceptional.
That does not reflect my or my friends experience. Once one gets beyond the local representatives, service for me always was exceptional.
Their software support is something else. I haven't had to use IBM tooling in a while, but back when I did, everything they sold was absolutely fucking terrible (DB2, RAD, WebSphere, Clear Case, Tivoli) compared to many open source equivalents.
The only reason people buy this rubbish is because they're in an old company (bank, insurance, etc.) that has relied on it for ages and don't care about the inefficiency or cost.
Over 20 years in contracting that's been my experience too, utterly lazy, awful software - awful UI, continuous license issues, buggy, juggernauts of bloat. WSAD (Eclipse + Websphere plugins) was easily my worst experience with an IDE, ClearCase easily my worst experience with a SCCS etc. I pity people that have to work with any of it 9-5.
The banks and insurance companies I've worked at had support contracts, but they were useless - you more often than not just had to suck it up.
IBM in general seems fairly aware of who their best teams are, and you're probably not going to get one of those teams. (Unless you're a huge account and/or the project is in dire straits)