AIX is the brand name of IBM's proprietary UNIX operating system. Several different versions of AIX have existed over time, some being eventually eliminated. AIX V1, which ran on the IBM RT/PC (AIX/RT) appeared in 1986. It was based on System V Release 3. Since 1989, AIX is the OS for the RS/6000 line of workstations and servers (AIX/6000). During AIX development, features from 4.2BSD and 4.3BSD were merged in by IBM and INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation (under contract to IBM).

AIX is an acronym for Advanced Interactive eXecutive, it is almost always referred to by the acronym and hardly ever by the full name.

AIX had a reputation among its users for inconsistencies with other UNIX systems. A common joke about AIX is that it is an acronym standing for "Ain't unIX". (Compare GNU.) Other jokes include referring to it as "AIX ('aches') and pains", and asserting that "AIX is UNIX for drunk aliens".

Some of AIX's more popular features include commands such as chuser, mkuser, and rmuser, and similar things which allow for user administration analogous to file administration. AIX's level of support for volume management is gradually being added to the various free UNIX-like operating systems.

External link

• IBM AIX home page