Apple ditching a/ux

[mad-jamie16]

im having a massive argument on Facebook with this guy and he has started talking about how apple made a huge mistake ditching a/ux and going with os x. i'm not very familiar with a/ux so is there any chance anyone can give me a little info of whats so good about a/ux and why (if it was) a bad decision to replace it? i tried searching on google but most of the info was vague.
cheers guys, jamie

 

[micsaund]

I don't have any opinion, as I'm not educated on A/UX, but here is more info you can read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/UX

Mike

 

[MisterMe]

im having a massive argument on Facebook with this guy and he has started talking about how apple made a huge mistake ditching a/ux and going with os x. i'm not very familiar with a/ux so is there any chance anyone can give me a little info of whats so good about a/ux and why (if it was) a bad decision to replace it? i tried searching on google but most of the info was vague.
cheers guys, jamie

As evidenced by the Wikipedia page linked by micsaund in Post No. 2, your friend is full of it. Personally, I take a backseat to no one in my respect for A/UX. However, Apple did not drop A/UX in favor of MacOS X. Apple dropped A/UX in favor of IBM's AIX. This was done as part of Apple partnership with IBM and Motorola when they formed the AIM alliance. Introduced in 1996, Apple's Network Server 500 and Network Server 700 ran AIX exclusively. MacOS X Server 1.0, Apple's first OpenSTEP-based OS, did not go online until 1999.

A/UX was one of the best System V ports by any developer. MacOS X up through MacOS X 10.4 was BSD-based. However, MacOS X 10.5 put an end to all that. MacOS X 10.5 and MacOS X 10.6 are certified UNIX 03. This Single UNIX Specification unified System V and BSD and replaced them both. FWIW, AIX is also certified UNIX 03.

The controversy between System V and BSD is from a bygone era. The "fight" for today is between the family of distributions of Linux, a Unix workalike, and genuine UNIX. Apple has doubled-down on genuine UNIX. If Apple had stuck with A/UX, switched to AIX, or adopted BSD-based OpenSTEP, then it is likely that Apple would have ended up where it is today.

 

[old-wiz]

The controversy over different flavors of *NIX is impossible to resolve. I once had a chart over 5 feet long showing evolution of *NIX all the way back to Multics (and I doubt many of the younger posters even know what Multics was, much less used it) and the original Digital UNIX, which was an outgrowth of Multics. It is a waste of time to argue which is better unless you are an OS internals specialist with nothing better to do with your time. It makes fine fodder for arguing when you are in a bar drinking with other geeks, but no one will ever resolve the issues. Of course arguing about *NIX versions in a bar is not a good way to attract loose women.