Good God, IBM's marketing of the, uh, whatever it's called is a total mystery to me. Either it's totally crap, or it's so clever that it's way over my head.

It looks like there's another rebranding on the way. Say hello to the "eServer i5". I first came across this name in this news item from The Register: IBM's Power5 pops up first in new iSeries. So, I had a quick google, and found MSN's First IBM Power5 server to debut Monday. "The iSeries label that replaced AS/400 in 2000 will itself be phased out in favor of eServer i5, sources said. And though the OS/400 label for the operating system survived the 2000 rebranding, it now will be replaced with i5/OS, sources said."

i5? I shudder to think about the ads we've got coming, with brash Americans jumping up and down and slapping each other's palms. Sigh.

And don't talk to me about "WebSphere" - does IBM make any software that isn't called WebSphere something-or-other these days?

Update: See also IBM rolls out Power 5-based iSeries server.