Edit: The developerworks and VUG links no longer work, but the survey information is still there.
Originally posted August 18, 2009 on AIXchange
To the surprise of some, users think highly of AIX. This recent IT Business Edge blog post cites an annual ITIC survey on enterprise server platforms.
“IBM AIX won in virtually every major category, from uptime, to time to patch, in every type of problem report. It appears that IBM missed the memo that UNIX was dead.”
Blogger Rob Enderle, president of Enderle Group, a technology advisory firm, goes on to say:
“It is amazing how often something we think of as dead seems to come back. Then, like the old Monty Python movie ‘Holy Grail’ and the ‘bringing out the dead’ scene, it not only isn’t dead but it seems to be feeling more alive every moment. This was true of the mainframe and now it appears to be true of AIX, which did surprisingly well.'”
Even more striking about the results–this is the second straight year that AIX topped the field in this survey.
This doesn’t surprise me, since I use AIX every day. Of course, not everyone shares my feelings.
On Twitter I see comments like: “HP-UX isn’t so bad… I used to manage HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Dynix, Redhat and SCO… AIX was my least favorite.”
Or: “Fixing Windows Itanium and IBM AIX issues in our product. Wish people stopped using those platforms.”
Even in this economy, I continually see job openings for people with AIX skills being posted to job sites and Twitter, and I don’t think this is likely to change in the near term.
I’m convinced that the people who are tweeting about how much they hate AIX haven’t actually spent much time using it. Yes, it differs from other operating systems. And yes, there is a learning curve — though many avenues are available to anyone who seeking more AIX knowledge (starting with IBM Redbooks site, IBM developerWorks site and the IBM AIX Virtual User Group site). But in my experience, once people learn about all the capabilities of AIX, they tend to love it.
At least AIX is getting some positive recognition. I’m especially glad to see it being recognized for things like uptime and time to patch. Hopefully with reports like this one, word will continue to spread.