IBM Power Ideas Portal


This portal is to open public enhancement requests against IBM Power Systems products, including IBM i. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).


Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:

Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,

Post your ideas

  1. Post an idea.

  2. Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.

  3. Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.


Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

Add a new idea Subscribe
Status Submitted
Workspace AIX
Created by Guest
Created on Aug 20, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

One location for software downloads

IBM AIX is a great product. But most users install software on their machines that is supplied by IBM but does not come with AIX. Examples are sudo, openssh, java, lsof, Python3, perl etc. Many of which are from the AIX Web Download Pack (https://www.ibm.com/resources/mrs/assets?source=aixbp) or from the AIX Toolbox for Open Source (https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/883796). In some cases software, like python3, can be found in multiple places with different support policies.

When it comes to fixes, patches and new versions this adds FixCentral to the mix, a site like IBM Efixes and all the places where the software initially came from. Also the packaging ranges wildly from .tar, .rpm, .epkg.Z, .bff etc. (mostly depending on the software needed to install/update the fix).

This makes it difficult to automate keeping your system up-to-date. While the file format typically is limited to the tools used (efix installation with emgr requires an .epkg.Z file for instance), the fact that they all spread out over the IBM websites is troublesome and sometimes hard to remember. It would be great if it would be possible to have ONE location within IBM with all commonly installed/used software for AIX, and an API (or a simple HTTPS/SFTP interface) to access it, making automation much easier. And for those who cannot automate, it would offer a one-stop shop for administrators.

If that is impossible, due to login requirements, licensing or copyright issues, one tool that knows about all the different places and can download them (primarily fixes, patches and newest versions) would be welcome.

Idea priority Medium

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