a b wrote:
I wanted to get AIX, but when I looked even at an outdated 32-bit rack-mountable "AIX" PPC system, the prices of the hardware were so high I just said - forget it! And the fact that one can't get AIX readily makes things even worse. Perhaps it is possible to obtain AIX gratis, but it certainly isn't obvious how and requires further "digging", however, without IBM's PPC hardware to run it on, it's pointless.
One of the "features" of AIX and the pSeries hardware is the strength of the relationship between the two. AIX on commodity hardware would be quite pointless, and I always tell those this that want to run AIX on commodity hardware. The amount of awareness AIX has with regard to the underlying hardware is quite amazing, and is certainly comparable to Solaris on SPARC if not more.
I purchased an IBM pSeries p640 (also known as an RS/6000 7026-B80) off of eBay a little over a year ago for $1,200. RS/6000 hardware can be had for cheaper, but this system has 2x375MHz POWER3-IIs and 2GB of memory. Performance is roughly comparable to a 750MHz UltraSPARC-III, as such systems were sold about the same time as the p640 (~2000). You can purchase its single-proc variant (the p640 is quad-capable) for $300-$400, nowadays.
Plus, I've tracking AIX on and off, and I really don't see any significant innovation being done on it. IBM does the bare minimum to keep the platform so-so with the times... but IBM sure seems to do it with grinding their teeth, only when they must.
I wouldn't quite say AIX isn't innovating and its definitely not the case it hasn't ever innovated. AIX and Solaris have often benefited from each other. Examples of this would be: (1) AIX moved from the M:N threading model before Solaris did (2) Solaris had Live Upgrade before AIX did, but AIX now has it, as well (implemented in 5.2, IIRC) (3) AIX and Solaris both have pageable kernel spaces to some extent (AIX seems to be able to page more of the the kernel space than Solaris from what I understand (4) for years AIX had a better volume manager that was included with the operating system. Even with the amount of "suckage" SVM has, it was an add-on up until not too long ago, while the LVM in AIX has always been coupled with the OS base. (5) AIX had tracing capabilities, though primitively, years before Solaris did (6) some would say pSeries/AIX has far better hardware virtualization than domains on Sun hardware
Sure, IBM may be not be "innovating" with AIX, as we speak, they've certainly done so in the past, and it would be a shame to ignore that. Solaris has gone through its "dark times", as well, when AIX was considered "innovative" (consider, Solaris 8 v. AIX 4.3.3 or Solaris 9 v. AIX 5.2, which is even more of a gap).
I administer and work with Solaris and Sun hardware far more than pSeries/AIX, and would certainly recommend going with Solaris to a client or customer over AIX, but ignoring how AIX and Solaris have followed each other's developments is silly, IMO.
Derek E. Lewis [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://delewis.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
