AIX, or Advanced Interactive eXecutive, is a proprietary Unix operating system developed and maintained by IBM. First introduced in 1986 for the IBM RT PC workstation, AIX was based on UNIX System V Releases 1 and 2 and incorporated elements from 4.2 and 4.3 BSD Unix. Over the years, AIX became the primary operating system for IBM’s RS/6000 and later Power Systems, evolving to support a range of enterprise hardware platforms.

AIX is known for its reliability, scalability, and advanced features tailored for mission-critical enterprise environments. It was the first operating system to implement a journaling file system, enhancing data integrity and recovery capabilities. AIX also offers robust virtualization, dynamic hardware resource allocation, and enterprise-grade security features, drawing on IBM’s mainframe experience. While AIX is optimized for IBM Power Systems and excels in stability and performance for large-scale workloads, it remains a proprietary solution, contrasting with the open-source nature of Linux.

Today, AIX continues to be a preferred choice for organizations requiring high availability, strong support, and integration with IBM’s hardware ecosystem. Its focus on enterprise needs, such as workload management and resource optimization, makes it a staple in industries where uptime and reliability are critical.