18 Jul
2008
18 Jul
'08
2:51 a.m.
Boyd Lynn Gerber <gerberb(a)zenez.com> wrote:
Caldera/SCO was trying to get everything opensourced.
They released OpenUNIX 8.0 which was UnixWare 7.1.2.
They had reached an agreement with every one and were
about to release everything a the big expo in Jan/Feb east
cost. It was to be a joint IBM/SCO announcement, when
IBM suddenly decided against it and were addamanly
nowdoing everything to stop it. IBM was the "big bad guy".
What I never could understand is how the roles got reversed
and IBM the anti opensource and SCO the pro open source
changed places.
It wasn't as simple as that - I was there (at SCO) at the time and,
while it is true that the Caldera management at the time they
acquired SCO's UNIX business (Ransome Love) was in favor of
open sourcing everything it never came even close to actually
happening. The main reason was that both SCO UnixWare and
OpenServer were heavily encumbered with lots of bits of third
party code and their associated licensing agreements and it
was, for practical purposes, impossible to either negotiate
agreements with all of the third parties or remove the code in
question,
As for why Caldera/SCO changed their position - that is simple.
It happened overnight when the management changed and
Darl McBride replaced Ransom Love.