Although the AIX and UNIX developerWorks zone is one of the newer zones in the developerWorks family, we're not the baby. The AIX and UNIX zone has made significant contributions to the developerWorks family and has a worldwide following in the developer community. developerWorks launched the AIX and UNIX zone in 2006 but, looking at the top articles on the AIX and UNIX zone, we can trace our roots back six years. Our Top 10 list is not based primarily on page views (although page views played a significant part in making the list), but we also considered those articles that our readers continue to come back to year after year.

From the staff of the AIX and UNIX zone: Happy Birthday, developerWorks!

1. nmon performance: A free tool to analyze AIX and Linux performance

   This free tool gives you a huge amount of information all on one screen. Even though IBM doesn't officially support the tool and you must use it at your own risk, you can get a wealth of performance statistics. Why use five or six tools when one free tool can give you everything you need?

2. AIX commands you should not leave home without

   Do you ever feel you wish you could answer some of your own questions when you work with AIX and your System p® server? Do you ever feel you could save time by not having to call on the support professionals all the time? Well, wish no more. Shiv Dutta discusses some of the AIX commands that answer those questions and tells you how to enlarge the list of such answers.

3. UNIX tips: Learn 10 good UNIX usage habits

   Adopt 10 good habits that improve your UNIX command line efficiency -- and break away from bad usage patterns in the process. This article takes you step-by-step through several good, but too often neglected, techniques for command-line operations. Learn about common errors and how to overcome them, so you can learn exactly why these UNIX habits are worth picking up.

4. nmon analyser -- A free tool to produce AIX performance reports

   Searching for an easy way to create high-quality graphs that you can print, publish to the Web, or cut and paste into performance reports? Look no further. The nmon_analyser tool takes files produced by the NMON performance tool, turns them into Microsoft® Excel spreadsheets, and automatically produces these graphs.

5. Advanced techniques for using the UNIX find command

   Explore the vast terrain of the UNIX file system with the find command. One of the most powerful and useful commands in the UNIX programmer's repertoire is find. All flavors of UNIX have file systems that can contain thousands of files of many different types. With so many choices, locating a specific file, or set of files, can be difficult. The find command makes this task easier in many ways.

6. Korn shell scripting

   Korn shell scripting is something all UNIX users should learn how to use. Shell scripting provides you with the ability to automate many tasks and can save you a great deal of time. It may seem daunting at first, but with the right instruction you can become highly skilled in it. This article will teach you to write your own Korn shells scripts.

7. UNIX tips: Learn 10 more good UNIX usage habits

   As a follow-up to Michael Stutz's excellent article, this article provides 10 more good habits to adopt that will improve your UNIX command-line efficiency. Learn about common errors and how to overcome them, and discover exactly why these 10 UNIX habits are worth picking up!

8. Python for system administrators

   Adopt Python to manage UNIX systems while incorporating concepts of good program design. Python is an easy-to-learn, open source scripting language that lets system administrators do their job more quickly. It can also make tasks more fun.

9. Best practices for programming in C

   Learn from IBM experts about using the GCC compiler on AIX. The authors explain why you should use the GCC compiler, which compiler options are specific to pSeries, what you need to know about shared libraries, and common gotchas and solutions.

10. Using the GNU C/C++ compiler on AIX

    Using UNIX in a day-to-day office setting doesn't have to be clumsy. Learn some of the many ways, both simple and complex, to use the power of the UNIX shell and available system tools to greatly increase your productivity in the office.