[comp.unix.aix] Death of PS/2-AIX??

RKL100@psuvm.psu.edu (Robert K. Lockstone) (11/10/90)

I would like to preface this by stating that this is an unsubstantiated
rumor!  I have no hard facts to back it up, just hearsay as far as
I know.  This may be old news, but it's the first time I've heard it.
I don't pretend to keep up with the trade journals or anything, and I
don't often read this newsgroup.  Perhaps this was already discussed.
If so, sorry for the repeat.  If not, does anyone have any further
information on this?

I worked extensively with AIX for RT's and PS/2's at IBM for about
a year and a half.  Through some contacts I still have, I heard that
IBM is planning on killing their AIX support for PS/2's.  The
reasoning being that they want to push the RS6000 as their AIX
machine and the PS/2 as their OS/2 machine.  This rumor appears to
be substantiated by information suggesting that IBM has stopped
development on the next release version of AIX for PS/2's.  I thought
IBM wanted to develop their SAA idea using AIX, i.e. have AIX be the
OS which runs on *all* their systems, from PS/2's thru 370 (disregarding
anything less than a 386, of course).  If they are trashing AIX for
PS/2's, where does that leave SAA?

..Robert  <RKL100@psuvm.psu.edu>

shawn@jdyx.UUCP (Shawn Hayes) (11/10/90)

It's true that IBM is de-emphasizing AIX for now, but that's due to their
working on porting OSF/1.  The last thing I heard (from the trade
magazines and IBM personnel) is that OSF/1 with an AIX layer should be 
available somtime late next year.  Actually I think almost every implementation
of OSF/1 will have an AIX front-end as the utilities for OSF/1 were derived
from the AIX versions.  I think it's safe to say that IBM will keep selling
AIX for the PS/2.  If OS/2 ever takes off they may not push AIX, but their
unlikely to just drop it.  After all they have a better chance of selling
the RS/6000 into a company if they can get the companies existing PS/2's to
easily talk to the RS/6000.

buck@siswat.UUCP (A. Lester Buck) (11/12/90)

In article <90313.150045RKL100@psuvm.psu.edu>, RKL100@psuvm.psu.edu (Robert K. Lockstone) writes:
> Through some contacts I still have, I heard that
> IBM is planning on killing their AIX support for PS/2's.

My understanding is that after the OSF-UI courtship broke up, and all the
OSF members got up to pledge undying support for OSF/1, IBM actually
announced that they were working on an OSF/1 port for the PS/2.  Until
then, everything was statements of direction and other generalizations.
I thought a totally plain vanilla OSF/1 for the PS/2 was to be the
first IBM OSF release, since the 386 is one of the porting bases.

-- 
A. Lester Buck    buck@siswat.lonestar.org  ...!uhnix1!lobster!siswat!buck