06-30-2008
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My advice is to learn about the fundamental design questions of operating systems. Windows does a pretty good job in hiding them (that makes it, on one hand, look pretty simple, while on the other hand pretty dull), so you probably are not all too aware of them.
Every Operating systems has to answer questions like:
- how do i handle processes?
- how do i organize my memory so that every process has enough?
- how do i organize disk space?
- how do i handle things that happen (interrupts, dignals, ...)?
etc, etc. "Unix" is a set of answers to all these questions (at this level of abstraction there is not so much difference between UNIX and Linux), "Windows" is another set of answers to the same questions.
There is a fantastic book by Mr. Andrew Tanenbaum, "Operating systems, Design and Impementation". The first volume raises and discusses all these questions and their possible answers, the second volume deals with a detailed implementation of a UNIX-system kernel: MINIX. This kernel, btw., was the starting point for Mr. Torvalds to build Linux.
Why do I emphasize this book (which does not at all deal with AIX specifically)? Because it is a common misconception that an OS is a question of user interface colours or mouse gestures. This is like judging racing cars by the colour they are painted with. OSes are determined by the way they meet these fundamental demands with solutions - OS facilities - and usually an anwer can be better appreciated after understanding the question to the full.
I hope this helps.
bakunin