AIX, System V comparision

[mark.hoffman]

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This is long-winded, but
I just had to respond to the following items:

In some article, THW writes:
>
>Well, I think that IBM's AIX blows system V right out of the water! It has
>all of system V's goodies plus a few from BSD like sockets. AIX also has
>a virtual terminal support which tops windows any day. If AIX gets out
>there and the price gets low enough to compete with system V (maybe
>already is) and the price of the PS/2 hardware would lower also, that AIX
>could potentially be as big a hit as DOS.
>
>Plus, with AIX, and the PS/2's you have IBM support which beats AT&T 
>any day. IBM is NOT wasting their time, merely trying to compete and
>hold the edge.
>
>						THW

IBM is wasting their time, and ours.

AIX is based on UNIX System V Release 2, (YES 2!) and has none,
repeat none, of the "goodies" that System V
Release 3 has, notably STREAMS and TLI, the combination of which is
recognized as superior in the industry to sockets (see "The STREAMS
Machine", Mini-Micro Systems, February 1989).
I dont know what release of System V THW is familiar with, but the
System V/386 versions now coming out are based on Release 3.
It's unclear in what decade OSF/IBM will come out with a version of
AIX that approaches the functionality available in UNIX System V
Release 3.

IBM is ludicrously far behind in UNIX System development.
If not for IBM's divisive efforts to standardize the UNIX System
around AIX, AIX would be dead today.

That's not to say that AIX is not a serious competitor in the marketplace
for those who don't mind running yesterday's technology gotten second-hand
from a company whose profit margins are guaranteed by proprietary
hardware and software (hats off to microchannel!).

While I'm at it:

In article <3503 at altos86.Altos.COM> mlindsey at x102c.harris-atd.com (Lindsey MS 04396) writes:
>
>I certainly agree that AT&T has missed the boat.  Because of their arrogance
>and incompetence, the UNIX market has splintered.  Maybe their alliance with
>SUN with help give them a clue of what people want.

On the contrary, it was IBM that missed the boat;  they're now furiously
trying to catch up.

AT&T did not splinter the UNIX marketplace.  People found UNIX so useful
and portable that offshoots of the original UNIX System proliferated.
Notably, XENIX, SUNOS, and BSD.
AT&T, in UNIX System V Release 4.0, is offering BSD/SUNOS/XENIX
compatibility as a major feature.  Rather than being
"arrogant and incompetent", AT&T is attempting to offer a single UNIX
System platform that users of other variants can move towards to increase
the portability and reusability of code, and achieve greater hardware
(vendor) independence.

IBM's AIX is a step back in time.
>
>I expect AIX to be a very good OS in the future.  It looks like IBM is fixing
>some of the big problems with Sys V UNIX like security and tape utilities.

Tell me more.  In light of your comment below, I don't think you know.
However, "in the future" is an apt phrase.

>Does anyone out there have any experience with AIX or Mach?  Enquiring minds
>want to know.
>
What are you basing your comments on if you don't have experience
with AIX?  I've seen it, and I'm unimpressed.

Any of the System V/386 alternatives cited in previous postings
(SCO pops to mind, as well as AT&T's own version) are superior to AIX.

Adding to all this the new "goodies" that ATT is adding to UNIX System V in
Release 4, I can't help but think that the IBM/OSF propaganda machine
is succeeding in getting people to believe that they can somehow jump
into UNIX System development and do it better than the people who have
been doing it for years (I don't mean just AT&T).
It seems like someone at Big Blue woke up a while back and said
"Hey, we better get into this UNIX stuff!"

It seems to me that all they really wanted to do was throw a great big monkey
wrench at AT&T in the hopes that they could catch up in the interim.

	Mark Hoffmann
	Summit, NJ

The opinions expressed above are mine, not AT&T's.

UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Laboratories.