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September 14, 2004

TechTip: AIX - the writing is on the wall....

Over at The Register there is an interesting story about Linux vs AIX:

IBM continues to refine its Linux server strategy, announcing today a new set of kit that runs the open source OS only on its Power5 processor.

The first system in this new line will be the OpenPower 720, which arrives later this month. The four-processor box will run on either 1.5GHz or 1.65GHz Power5 chips and support up to 64GB of memory. IBM will offer both Red Hat and SuSE's enterprise Linux operating systems on the new box.

This is an interesting announcement and it is going to annoy the heck out of SCO. To understand why requires some history lesson but suffice it to say that currently IBM has to pay SCO royalties for AIX licenses. It does not have to pay anyone royalties for Linux licenses. If you were IBM which would you be pushing?

The downside is that AIX still has tools and admin features that have not yet made it into Linux. If the SCO debacle can be resolved in IBM's favour then we could see some of those benefits appearing in general Unix. Bring on SMIT for Linux...

Posted by Ozguru at September 14, 2004 06:00 AM