CRUX PPC

I have a task to build Samba for AIX 5.3...After spending many many hours trying to build Samba using gcc (work wont pay for xlC), to no avail... one thing or another - libm/gettext/libterm and a few other issues just make it hard for me to do stright forward builds.

I'm looking at installing CRUX on my 9114-275 and building samba but specifying aix as the OS during gcc builds...

Question is... should I persevere with AIX and gcc or would I be able to build packages easely under CRUX for AIX? considering they are on the same archiecture already?

it's a personal choice based on your needs and your skills, you're on your own.
AFAIK there is an AIX Toolbox for Linux applications (reference IBM Redbooks).

If AIX is also running on a PowerPC processor,I think there will be no differences between the two OS platform.