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Caldera Operating Systems Software Unix

SCO UnixWare 7.1.3 Review 399

JigSaw writes "Despite news about SCO being all about the lawsuit, they still sell OS products and they have a presence in the server market. UnixWare is one of these OS products. Tony Bourke reviewed its latest version, 7.1.3, and even includes benchmarks among other tests. Tony concludes that 'the lack of commercial applications and user community, the difficulty with open source applications, the SCO litigation, and the high price are all marks against UnixWare. There are just very few reasons to adopt UnixWare as your platform, and plenty of reasons to adopt (or migrate to) other platforms.'"
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SCO UnixWare 7.1.3 Review

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  • by pointym5 ( 128908 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:16PM (#7730484)
    It would be interesting to see the degree to which UnixWare copes with recent hardware: HyperThreading P4's, nForce2 chipsets, IEEE 1394, SATA RAID, etc etc etc.
  • SCO ? who uses it? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by ru-486 ( 73117 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:18PM (#7730511)
    Does anyone know of any organizations that actually use SCO Unix?
  • SVR4 based unix. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rkz ( 667993 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:20PM (#7730518) Homepage Journal
    SCO OS is based on the same code as SUN OS.

    As slashdot has reported a few days ago, Sun is giving x86 versions of Solaris away for free. Why bother with SCO when you can get Solaris with a much bigger set of applcations for free?
  • Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:20PM (#7730527)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Re:SVR4 based unix. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by molnarcs ( 675885 ) <csabamolnar AT gmail DOT com> on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:26PM (#7730567) Homepage Journal
    Well, not quite. Solaris incorporated a large chunk of BSD in their codebase. So Solaris is a mix of SystemV and BSD code. (That's why so many solaris admins are also BSD fans).
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:26PM (#7730572)
    We do at work. Does it suck god yes, support for it is pretty much unavailble if it's not between 8am and 5pm. There is total lack of good development software for it. I've been bitching about it for years. Why do we still use it, simple 3rd party software that was bought to run on a SCO system, makes it very pricy to move to another platform.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:27PM (#7730583)
    Any time you see a Dumb Terminal sitting in a retail location or a reception desk, the odds are SCO UNIX is behind the scenes.
  • Re:I am NOSTRADAMUS (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JabberWokky ( 19442 ) <slashdot.com@timewarp.org> on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:29PM (#7730600) Homepage Journal
    SCO's distro was pretty good. It hasn't been updated in a long time, but I ran a server on Caldera 1.2 and 1.3, and it was a fine 2.0.x era distribution.

    Their Unix, however, is not as good. FAS is based on it, and is the standard system for florists and gift basket type shops. I've had some recent experience with it, and it's not that fun to deal with. Okay, but not great. I'd prefer AIX any day. Or Linux, for that matter.

    --
    Evan

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:31PM (#7730609)
    x tcsh-6.12.00/win32/stdio.c, 15774 bytes, 31 tape blocks UX:tar: WARNING: Cannot get passwd information for christos UX:tar: WARNING: tcsh-6.12.00/win32/stdio.c: owner not changed

    Win32 on a Unix machine?

  • less than that (Score:2, Interesting)

    by timothy ( 36799 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:33PM (#7730633) Journal
    It's now down to less than 21 days, actually.

    Noticed someone's comment yesterday pointing to this site: scocountdown.com [scocountdown.com]. Note that the deadline you're referring to is not the one at the top of the page.

    timothy
  • Re:expensive crap (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:35PM (#7730649)
    Actually those sites that use unixware use the specific suites of applications unixware is GOOD with, and I think if you look at it in an unbiased manner, you'll see those are very high quality well-supported programs.

    Yes, you do get what you pay for, but if it's pointed in the wrong direction it'll be of no use to you. unixware is not for everyone.

    As a comparison, using unixware for the jobs it's not intended for would be like buying a BMW for competing in a motocross circuit. a BMW is high quality, and you pay for it. But it's useless if you try applying it in the wrong areas.
  • by bigberk ( 547360 ) <bigberk@users.pc9.org> on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:36PM (#7730658)
    I have had issues with SCO UnixWare over the years. Particularly, autoconf and automake scripts that worked for every other platform ranging from Linux, *BSD, Solaris to even Windows just failed to work under SCO's UNIX. And I used to want to try and fix these problems, but now SCO has fscked themselves so they can go to hell for all I care.
  • by Platinum Dragon ( 34829 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @09:51PM (#7730752) Journal
    From what I've read, many Pizza Huts and other brands owned by Tricon Global Restaurants use SCO-based servers for keeping track of sales and transferring sales data to headquarters. This can result in some rather ancient-looking machines being used for point-of-sale terminals, since it's likely difficult to find similar systems that would work with the chain's existing infrastructure. If you're in Toronto and you want to see what I mean, walk by the KFC in the Eaton Centre and get a look at the fossilized POS systems being used. I've seen them at multiple KFCs in the area, and it's a wonder they still run.

    It could be worse... but not by much.
  • by Quantum Jim ( 610382 ) <jfcst24@@@yahoo...com> on Monday December 15, 2003 @10:20PM (#7730945) Homepage Journal

    It's interesting how the prices compare:

    CPUs UnixWare Ent-Linux Solaris-9-x86
    1 $799-$1,399 $349-$449 $99-$250
    2 $2,299.00 $349-$449 $250.00
    4 $4,999.00 $749-$1499 $1,500.00
    8 $9,999.00 $749-$1499 na

    Enterprise Linux doesn't seem to offer an advantage unless you're using four or more processors. Solaris (and, Java Desktop, I assume) seems to be a better deal for regular workstations or servers... I imagine that only high-end servers and "mainframes" seem to benefit from the price. No wonder Red Hat doesn't see a future for desktop Linux... they're prices are too expensive!

  • Linked.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by herrvinny ( 698679 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @10:20PM (#7730946)
    Judge orders SCO to show Linux infringement - CNET news.com [com.com]

    In other legal action, IBM on Wednesday subpoenaed Sun Microsystems; which recently expanded its Unix license with SCO Group and has a warrant to purchase shares in the company; Schwartz Communications; a public relations firm that represents SCO; and defense contractor Northrop Grumman. IBM spokeswoman Guarino couldn't immediately describe the purpose of the subpoenas.

    I wonder why IBM subpoenaed Northrop Grumman? SCO says Grumman didn't buy any shares (although I don't believe that farther than I can kick it)...

  • Re:I have an idea. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Professor Bluebird ( 529952 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @10:20PM (#7730947)
    And I'm surprised no kiddiots came up with UnixWarez yet.
  • by Vendetta ( 85883 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @10:39PM (#7731067)
    A hospital I do a lot of work at has a bunch of dumb terminals sitting around. They are hooked up to a old VMS system. This is going away come Feburary, in favor of a web-based clinical application courtesy of Siemens.

    But Siemens needs the client machines to run IE 6.1...

  • Re:A prediction... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by thales ( 32660 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @10:55PM (#7731230) Homepage Journal
    Then maybe we should help Linux-POS

    http://www.linux-pos.org/

    And kill what's left of SCO's market.

  • WebMD (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Kraegar ( 565221 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:04PM (#7731296)
    WebMD aquired a company called "Medical Manager" a while back. Medical Manager [medicalmanager.com] is an application that a lot of Physician Practices use to do scheduling and billing. When I say a lot, I mean like 75% of them, last I checked. Anyway, Medical Manager is usually sold on SCO boxes, as that's what it was originally developed on. The other choices are AIX, HPUX, and NT (though I've never heard of someone running it on NT) but most physician practices don't go that route based on cost alone.

    So yes, lots of people still use SCO... in fact, odds are your family doctor does.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:09PM (#7731348)
    NCR was a cash register company as well. Who
    remembers them now? They were a union busting
    monster in the 1960's and 70's; a hire 'em
    fire 'em conglomerate that ate companies on one
    end and spit out all the high insurance 'risks'
    on the other. That being all people over 40
    and most women. They finally got what they
    deserved. Somebody bought them out and
    liquidated them.
  • by rngadam ( 304 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:22PM (#7731424)
    Hmmm, if the LKP works so well, couldn't it be possible they ripped off code from the Linux kernel at some point?? Is anyone verifying this?
  • Another instance (Score:2, Interesting)

    by pentalive ( 449155 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:54PM (#7731607) Journal
    A large clothing retail chain (now out of business) used SCO for POS as well. (the whole time I worked there I lobbyied for Linux!)
  • by grmb1 ( 732949 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @01:49AM (#7732207) Homepage
    Several years ago I was setting up IP routing and servers for some 'academy'. Network gear and software was bought (not by me!) on grant from Soros Fund.

    Backbone was on fiberoptics. High-end Dell servers, expensive Cisco routers, rackmount cabinets, intellectual switches, et cetera, et cetera. Lots of very, very expensive and really, really useless (for them) stuff stuff.
    And there was also SCO's "OS", for something about 20000$ - big and heavy box full of manuals and a couple of CDs. I can remember only their "tree" logo and a bunch of crappy GUI tools for "easy system configuration".

    After spending about two days trying to get things to be at least looking good on SCO, I ended up nuking it and installing Linux (Redhat 6 or 7, dont' remember). And got it up and running in several hours. Also there were Cisco's, but it was really easy to set them up compared to SCO. :)

    That network was between four buildings and contained around 50 workstations (classes only, no student quarters). It was more than enough to build backbone on thick coax and install simple hubs to endpoints. Ah, the Net connection there was 'uber-fast' for Belorussia - noisy 64K link to another town, which equals about 20K of 'real' speed.

    The irony is that it all happened in Belorussia - small contry between Russia and Poland. And Belorussia was never technically advanced country, and probably never be. Well, 32K links are considered to be 'uber-fast' even now in Belorussia. (Usual salary in Belorussia is now below 100$ per month)

    So, we have example of Soros Fund's money-washing using SCO OS. :)
  • Re:I am NOSTRADAMUS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @03:01AM (#7732532) Homepage Journal
    "Note that being moderated Funny doesn't help your karma. You have to be smart, not just a smart-ass. "

    Pretty lame if you ask me. The FAQ suggests being funny if ya can. Everybody appreciates it when you succeed. Truth be told, we're not all experts in every topic that comes around on Slashdot, so why not reward us for the effort?

    Yep, this is off-topic, and I won't whine if it's modded that way. But I do hope that the upper staff at Slashdot will reconsider this rule. I [slashdot.org] do [slashdot.org] put [slashdot.org] effort [slashdot.org] into [slashdot.org] my [slashdot.org] +5 Funny [slashdot.org] comments [slashdot.org].
  • by hmallett ( 531047 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @08:36AM (#7733482) Homepage
    On a Compaq server (Dual Xeon with a RAID array), OpenServer couldn't find the RAID array, Windows 2000 server couldn't find the RAID array without using the Compaq installation CD, but FreeBSD installed perfectly, from 2 floppies (over FTP).
  • Re:Spun Where? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dubious9 ( 580994 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @09:27AM (#7733756) Journal
    And running on x86 is the only serious advantage Unixware has over other "real" Unixes.

    An AC, posted "Uh, Solaris?" as a reply and since I don't have any mod points, I'd like to make that point visible.

    AFAIK Solaris x86 has been stable for quite some time, is a "real" unix and even is free for personal use. This is great becuase people can get familiar with SunOS at home, rather than needing employment to list Solaris experience.

    I'm young, but in the few shops I've worked in the only unix considerations we've ever given creedance to are Solaris, AIX, and HP-UX (listed here in order of my personal preference). Even before the current SCO crazyness, why trust your UNIX's development to a few millions of dollars business when you have multi-billion dollar businesses in IBM, Sun, and HP? In terms of features,scalibility, community, and support there is no comparison between the "big three" and SCO unix.

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