AIX is now 35 years old, I started to work with it in 1993, when AIX was already 7 years old. AIX Version 1 came out in 1986.
So I now already worked with this operating system for 28 years!
And it is still my favorite OS, maybe you wonder why? Let me explain why.
Several reasons, such as Reliability, Availability, and Scalability (RAS), performance, security, virtualization, and build for mission critical operations.
Relaying on a robust hardware platform, and running with new technology such as Live Updates. No I am not a car seller and not a IBM sales person.
IBM announced development and support to 2030 and beyond. They now also announced AIX 7.3 before end of this year, personally I can’t wait to lay my hand on it! Only have to find a new lab system for this because It will not run on my Power7 machine.
My personal AIX time line
My first version of AIX that I installed and worked with was AIX 3.1 and I think this was in 1993.
Working at a small company called AAC, I installed it form a 8mm tape drive, and the server model was a RS/6000 350. Our customers were mainly small business firms that used those systems for bookkeeping. Also, with the next company I worked NavTech, I continued to work with AIX / RS6000 systems, this this time used for creating map for car navigation systems. The models we used were several IBM 220, 350, and two IBM 550L systems. The 550’s had a LU6.2 communication link to the IBM Mainframe of Philips running CICS.
The next company I worked for was a Dutch dairy company Campina Melkunie (Commit Information Systems). Again, working with AIX releases 4.2 up to 4.3.3. We mainly used SAP software running on RS6000 E20, F50, H50 systems with SSA storage cabinets.
After this I started to work at my current company SNS Bank (De Volksbank) there I started with the “new” Power systems Power 4, running AIX 5.1. We are now running AIX 7.2 TL04 and used LU Live Upgrade to this level.
My collector items and former test systems
Also a kind of a weird hobby is to collect pieces of the hardware that I worked with.
I managed to collect some of the oldies, and it also shows again the robustness, all the items are in a working condition!
Items collected: RS6000: E20, H50 + SSA cabinet, P4 (7028) ,P6-520 (8203), P7 740 (8205)
Still looking for my first one RS6000 350, or 220, and now for a Power8 system to run in the near future AIX 7.3!
To read more about IBM AIX click on the cd or view the following link AIX-homepage
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