17 Jul
2008
17 Jul
'08
10:33 p.m.
On Thu, 17 Jul 2008, Jose R. Valverde wrote:
I have to change my opinion on SCO to consider them
now UNIX zealots. As
I read it, I guess Sun was worried by possibly non-ATT code in SVRX, and
may be by Novell's assertions, so they shielded themselves: if I'm not
wrong that means OpenSolaris is safe and the responsibility for that
relies totally on SCO.
SCO thus was willing to take any risks regarding third parties with
respect to opening up SVRX derived Solaris. That was very bold and
valiant (though seeminglymay be wrong) from them. Why they decided to
allow open sourcing via Sun instead of Unixware is their choice. I guess
they thought it would play better for them to sell a 'closed' Unixware
as an 'enhanced' or 'better product' than open solaris. It also fits
within Caldera's previous opening other ancient UNIX.
My guess is they were for opening SVRX as a way to increase market share
of UNIX against LINUX but preferred Sun to open _their_ version instead
of opening SCO's own. At the same time they must have thought that a
combined attack on Linux would drive most people off Linux towards
opensource UNIX and that corporate interests would prefer SCO's closed
Unixware to Sun's open source solution in line with tradition.
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 now doing 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 opensource
changed places. I was working with both groups and could not understand
why IBM was being such a big pain. Shortly after it came the SCO law
suit. I thought it was going to be about IBM renigging on making things
OpenSOURCE. I really can not understand just how the roles were changed
so much. It was my understanding that the SUN deal was to add to the big
change and making things better for UNIX in general.
I am grateful to SCO for their attempt to make UnixWare/OpenUNIX
opensource. I just wish it had succedded.
--
Boyd Gerber <gerberb(a)zenez.com>
ZENEZ 1042 East Fort Union #135, Midvale Utah 84047