It depends upon what type of server. Both have their strengths. IMHO, Linux would be useful in situations where open source software is utilized, such as a web server or even a file server. I have not worked in many environments with a large amount of Linux, so I don't know about virtualization, or load balancing, or app servers. I have done a little virtualization on Linux desktop, which didn't involve those used by company groups, and it is lacking in my opinion. I have tried to get open source software on AIX and it can become a black hole.
AIX, on the other hand, is more of an enterprise-level OS, in my opinion. It's reliability, availability, and sustainability is far superior. Linux has some resource failure monitoring and detecting, but not as much as AIX. And not as much notification ability. Of course, my lesser amount of experience with Linux servers may taint my view. It also has much better administration tools. The storage architecture is far superior. Linux is getting better, but there are still many things done on it that requires a reboot that doesn't happen on AIX. AIX also seems to be getting much better at self tuning and trying to get as much performance out of the processes as possible.
I had a colleague years ago tell me that because of the Power processor's caching, he couldn't see putting anything like a corporate database on anything else. I'm no engineer so I don't know first hand about it.
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Bruce
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Original Message:
Sent: Tue August 17, 2021 02:20 PM
From: Russell Adams
Subject: Advocating AIX over Linux
This is an issue that comes up often, and I wanted to ask for group input and discussion.
It often comes back to AIX administrators to help defend why AIX is a better choice for critical business applications over commodity solutions like Linux on x86.
What reasons do you advocate using AIX over Linux? What reasons have been effective with your management in communicating the value of your POWER and AIX environment?
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Russell Adams
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