Oh no, the AIX monstrosity was only built after the code had been proven out on Solaris, IRIX, HPUX, and POSIX. We used to put off IBM-specific bugs until some new hire could be "delegated" some of our bug-lists.
Standard builds were started on the AIX just before we went home for the night; only cross-platform debug builds were done before lunch, so that we could prove out the fix before submitting the changes to the standard build.
Years later, I fully understood why IBM ditched AIX (for the most part) and ported everything to Linux.
It was a techie revolt over the stuffed suits. Would never have happened without a fairly extensive skunkworks project combined with well placed leaks of information and code. The political decision to stick with AIX had already been set in stone, and only got reversed due to incredible outside pressure from customers and tech journals.
IBM remains a unique place in that this kind of hacktivism is not only permitted, but occasionally celebrated. Quite a few veterans of the guerilla war to save VM/370 from extinction at the hands of MVS hardliners have survived to senior management positions with their sympathies intact.
I have acquired some scripting books to read whilst waiting for the scripts to do their thing (which seems to take, typically, two to four hours per step). It seems an appropriate way to pass the time.
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momijizukamori
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-19 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-19 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 03:44 am (UTC)We'd go to lunch.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 05:43 am (UTC)Standard builds were started on the AIX just before we went home for the night; only cross-platform debug builds were done before lunch, so that we could prove out the fix before submitting the changes to the standard build.
Years later, I fully understood why IBM ditched AIX (for the most part) and ported everything to Linux.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 02:12 pm (UTC)It was a techie revolt over the stuffed suits. Would never have happened without a fairly extensive skunkworks project combined with well placed leaks of information and code. The political decision to stick with AIX had already been set in stone, and only got reversed due to incredible outside pressure from customers and tech journals.
IBM remains a unique place in that this kind of hacktivism is not only permitted, but occasionally celebrated. Quite a few veterans of the guerilla war to save VM/370 from extinction at the hands of MVS hardliners have survived to senior management positions with their sympathies intact.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 05:00 pm (UTC)I have acquired some scripting books to read whilst waiting for the scripts to do their thing (which seems to take, typically, two to four hours per step). It seems an appropriate way to pass the time.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 01:49 pm (UTC)That depends on what decade you're talking about.
Late 80s to early 90s: most people had mailing lists and/or access to USENET to provide ample distraction.
Mid 80s: solitaire, minesweeper, bitching to boss about slowness of machine and need for new one, othello/reversi
Early 80s: small annoying puzzles, ping pong, darts.
70s: "smoke another joint, it'll be a while"
60s: drop your card deck off at the data centre, forget about it until the next morning