Edit: Are you ready to switch departments?
Originally posted January 22, 2019 on AIXchange
I’ve long maintained that AIX isn’t imperiled by the prevalence of Linux. Even so, it’s always great to encounter passionate defenses of our favorite operating system, and this thread from the AIX Reddit feed (r/aix) is chock full of them.
Let’s start with the original post:
Not that I have something against AIX, but I don’t see many people using it. And coming here to this sub-reddit confirmed my fears. Linux sub-reddit has 3000 times more subscribers and it’s a very fast growing technology/community. I fear that AIX doesn’t have such a big future compared to Linux.
I’d prefer to move to a Linux department, where the real deal is.
Should I talk to my company or just go to that department until my internship is over and then decide what I should do?
The responses are, in a word, glorious. Here’s the first one:
Linux is a Kia. AIX is a Mercedes.
I’ve been a UNIX Sys Admin for over 20 years and have worked on AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Tru-64, Dynix, Pyramid, NCR/MP-RAS, and Linux.
The AIX systems are the ones I’ve had the least problems from. They crash the least and are the most stable.
Another reply:
Linux is something you can learn at home. AIX is a skill you get on the job. Learning AIX is learning about Unix systems. Linux is a Unix-like system. Learn AIX, play with Linux at home and you’ll be better prepared.
Since this is an internship, I don’t think complaining is the way to go. AIX is very much alive. The user base isn’t on reddit.
And another:
The reason the linux subreddits are vastly more popular is because they aren’t an enterprise-tier OS with enterprise-tier support to match. When people run into issues in linux they turn to the open source community. When you run into issues with AIX, you call IBM because that’s what you pay them for.
Much of what you’ll learn on AIX (especially in an internship) will translate to linux and other unix systems. If you get into a position where you’re throwing into a linux environment after having 20 months experience on AIX, you’ll do fine. Spin up some linux VMs on your own time and replicate the things you do at work in AIX on your lab in linux. Best of both worlds….
And one more:
Depends on the environment. If it’s a place that has their stuff together reasonably well you could learn a ton. AIX is the Cadillac of UNIX’s right now. It runs on IBM hardware so there’s a deeper level of integration that is just so much easier to work with. Support is good once you get past the level one folks. But really it’s about the mainframe mentality. The guys who wrote AIX took the lessons from decades of other experience and put that into AIX. It really shows.
Linux is the Windows of UNIX. It’s great because it runs on anything and is easy to pickup. But once you start working on it daily you’ll see the warts.
All that being said Linux is where most of the new jobs are at. AIX jobs are harder to find but more likely to be more rewarding if your into big systems.
This particular story has a happy ending, as the original poster returns with this small but significant edit:
Thanks everyone. You convinced me.
That’s just a sampling of comments. Read the whole thing.