IBM AIX vs. openSUSE Leap

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM AIX
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
IBM AIX (for Advanced Interactive eXecutive) is a Unix operating system, developed, offered and supported by IBM.N/A
openSUSE Leap
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
German company SUSE supports the Linux distribution, openSUSE. Leap is the stable and regular release option for installing openSUSE. New and experienced Linux users get the most usable Linux distribution and stabilized operating system with openSUSE’s regular release. Receive updates and harden the OS with openSUSE’s latest major distribution. Presented as the platform of choice for Linux developers, administrators and software vendors.N/A
Pricing
IBM AIXopenSUSE Leap
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM AIXopenSUSE Leap
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM AIXopenSUSE Leap
Best Alternatives
IBM AIXopenSUSE Leap
Small Businesses
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.8 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM AIXopenSUSE Leap
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(11 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM AIXopenSUSE Leap
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
IBM AIX is well suited for mission-critical applications, especially the ones that need to run on well-performing hardware and need less downtime. It is also perfect for applications that need a lot of CPU, because AIX scales well on the IBM POWER hardware, so adding additional CPU almost always generates higher performance/throughput. IBM AIX runs unmodified from the smallest IBM POWER machine (S1022, with 12 Power10 cores) to the biggest machine (E1080, with 240 Power10 cores). Because IBM POWER systems have very fast CPU’s, you typically need a lower number of CPU’s when compared to alternatives. This may bring a reduction in cost for software licensed per core. Unfortunately, not all software vendors port their software to IBM AIX, so sometimes you may have to run Linux on POWER, or skip the POWER platform altogether. But many vendors happily support AIX and POWER.
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SUSE
OpenSUSE Leap is well suited for just about any Linux task. Especially I like to use it as Docker base image for my software deployments, because it has a wide variety of software packages available already precompiled and packages are well maintained - vulnerable software versions are patched in reasonable time. OpenSUSE Leap is rpm based system, and it wouldn't install Debian or other systems packages. If your software is not an rpm package then OpenSUSE Leap would not be suitable for your system.
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Pros
IBM
  • Stability. In the 14 years that I have used the product, I cannot think of a single time that we had an OS level failure. It is rock solid. We have had systems that have been booted and run for literally years without interruption.
  • Virtualization. We run IBM AIX as LPARS on Power infrastructure. All of our AIX infrastructure is virtualized making it easy to scale as needed.
  • Their logical volume manager makes the task of managing storage very simple. It is feature complete and they have mitigated much of the complexity that usually is inherent in LVM implementations.
  • I have a love/hate relationship with Smit. It is their administrative interface. It is very powerful and very complete which is why I marked it as a pro. It is also a bit clunky and somewhat arcane in its interface but still usable.
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SUSE
  • Maintenance of software packages using YAST
  • Availability of patches when a vulnerability is discovered
  • Distribution upgrades
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Cons
IBM
  • A lot of the built-in commands have not been updated in years. If you're used to some fancy CLI options in Linux, you may be out of luck with AIX.
  • Out of the box, you cannot run open-source Linux utilities on AIX. There is a toolbox you can install, however, it's not the same versions as you would get in different Linux flavors.
  • Tab completion for files and Up arrow to re-run previous commands don't work out of the box without running a Korn shell. A small annoyance, but one that catches me every time!
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SUSE
  • Commercial packages not always available
  • Stable packages sometimes lag behind the latest releases
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Usability
IBM
AIX is robust, helps the systems administrator, is built to prevent easily made mistakes. If you are used to other variants of Unix (in particularly Linux) there is no steep learning curve to get started with AIX. You need to learn the intricacies of the operating system, but that is true for any new operating system. AIX has built-in tools for almost anything you want and has the AIX Toolbox (on the web) for tools that are not included with AIX by default, but can be installed. Installation of AIX is modular, you can select with components and features you want to have installed. Installation of additional components (and usually also removal of installed components) is easy and straight-forward.
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SUSE
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
IBM
There is lots of documentation out there for AIX. On the times I've had to address a hardware issue, IBM's support has been great.
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SUSE
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
IBM
IBM AIX operating system is advanced with most features and also it's more reliable unlike Redhat Linux, Sun solaris, HP-UX and also we will have well support from the vendor if we run into any issues. IBM AIX is more user-friendly when compared to linux and easy to use so i would prefer the customers to have their operating system as IBM AIX for companies who has more customers.
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SUSE
openSUSE Leap has wide variety of already precompiled software packages in default repositories. It even has some specific packages in official repositories that are not available in other Linux distribution repositories. It is also very stable and reliable distro - we can predict when new versions will be released and when we should make system upgrades.
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Return on Investment
IBM
  • IBM AIX on Power hardware has been the backbone of our most critical applications.
  • The versatility of IBM AIX virtualization has been extremely useful, scalable, and provided configuration with redundant dual VIO servers.
  • IBM AIX is not Linux so special skill sets are needed to actually manage the systems. Finding qualified engineers can often be a challenge
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SUSE
  • More effective maintenance means a smaller headcount needed for running the production servers.
  • The easiness of deployment means more time we can spend on software development of company-specific applications.
  • Great community support and overlap with other Linux systems mean that an answer to nearly any problem is usually one google query away.
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ScreenShots