AIRS is a user-level IP-routing and AX.25 node system for linux and OS/2, derived from Hans Alblas' net.mini which itself is derived from Dieter Deyke's WAMPES which itself is derived from Phil Karn, KA9Q's NOS (Network Operating System). Its main development was around 1995, about five years ago. The idea behind it - which seemed reasonable to me at that time - was to
However, OS/2 lost the fight agains Windows '95 and Linux' kernel-AX.25 made this aproach rather uninteresting. The idea behind the TCP/IP, however, proved right when PC/FlexNet with its Win'95 IP coupler was released by Gunter Jost, DK7WJ.
AIRS can not be compared to traditional TCP/IP systems like WAMPES or JNOS as it has no TCP implementation, nor TCP/UDP clients or servers. It doesn't even have a complete IP implementation. Its only purpose was to en-/decapsulate IP frames coming from/going to the operating system via an internal SLIP link and send them out on an AX.25/NETROM interface. During development I focussed on performant AX.25 implementation, open source and user adjustable parameters.
This project is no more really maintained. However, you can find a current snapshot and the last official release here.