Edit: AIX is still a hidden gem, and people still need access to test machines.
Originally posted September 14, 2009 on AIXchange
While wandering around Chicago recently, I discovered a little museum along the Chicago River. Admission to the McCormick Tribune Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum was only $3, so I figured, “why not?” I went down the stairs (the museum is below street level) and found myself face to face with the gears that are used to raise and lower the Michigan Avenue Bridge. Then, as I climbed some steps, I found myself standing inside the Bridgehouse. From the two-story structure I could look out the windows and watch the tourists go by.
The place was air conditioned. The staffers were friendly. The restrooms were clean. And I was the only visitor. It is a relatively new museum, and no one seems to know about it yet.
From the website:
“The McCormick Tribune Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum is located in the southwest bridge tower of the Michigan Avenue Bridge. A charming space with stunning views… The historic bridge tower is itself a relic of another time, when bridge tenders operated the opening and closing of the bridge from the narrow tower. Visitors to the Bridgehouse Museum are treated to a rare look at the interworkings of the bridge that is lifted by two 100 horse powered engines.”
I wanted to run out and let greater Chicago know what it was missing. The staffers told me how they’d occasionally head to the street level and hand out fliers, but most people would keep walking. They weren’t interested in learning more about the bridges or the river. They preferred taking bus and boat tours.
This little museum actually makes me think of AIX. Both are cool, and both are sometimes overlooked by the world around them.
Consider other UNIX systems. I work with Linux. I’ve always argued that what makes Linux easy to learn is that it’s easy to get. Nearly everyone has access to an x86 machine, and you can download and play around with any of several distributions.
And before there was the ubiquitous Linux, there was Solaris. Back when I was in school, Solaris was running all over in universities, so students used it. And because they had access, they could easily make the transition to using Solaris in the business world.
In contrast, getting your hands on Power Systems hardware and copies of AIX can be difficult if you don’t already work for a company that has it in-house. It’s a vicious circle. People aren’t exposed to AIX, so they don’t know much about it. Then, when they do get to touch it, it’s foreign to them.
Without the hardware at home, and without access to the test lab or sandbox machines, becoming proficient with AIX can be a challenge. Sure, employers can send folks to formal classes, and I encourage that. But once classes conclude, IT pros still need access test hardware to continue to learn.
Even the high quality of AIX and Power hardware, in a sense, keeps users away from the systems. At many sites the systems are installed by a consultant, and they run with little care or feeding. So people become afraid to touch them, since no one wants to be responsible for causing an outage by fiddling with an enterprise application running on enterprise hardware.
On the other hand, people who do get to know AIX really, really like it as I blogged about in “AIX Tops in ITIC User Survey.” And efforts like the IBM Academic Initiative help bridge this gap for educators and students.
I guess most tourists in Chicago will continue to flock to the popular and well-known bus and boat rides. That’s fine.
As for AIX, I’ll continue to beat this drum and tell people to find out what they’re missing. At least in the computer world, we AIX users appreciate our hidden gem.