SCO UnixWare 7 to run Linux software

jgalun writes "ZDNN is reporting that SCO UnixWare 7 will run Linux software. Yet another victory for Linux. " There is some interesting quotes from SCO folk in there regarding Linux at the Enterprise level. SCOs been a sinking ship for a while though.

Re:Not really a victory for Linux

[J4]

it is a victory because if a business is using a Linux app on SCO the likelyhood that a Linux box will be deployed somewhere in the organization increases in a big time fashion. Chances would be _real_good_ there would be at least 1 Linux box used as an app server for whatever it is they are using. Eventually the PHB's will be looking to increase profits by cutting costs and will become aware of the irony of paying for their NOS when they could be running their apps in a native environment gratis. Then they can all pat themselves on the back for being so smart.
Short term I think it may be a win-win situation but I don't see this as being terrific for SCO in the long run.

Unixware market share

[TopSpin]

My understanding is that Unixware holds more of the Intel/Unix
market than any other commercial vendor. Is that what you meant
by lowest? How much actual experience do you have outside of
Linux?

Misatakes, mistakes...

[cesarcardoso]

Oh dear. Those SCO guys is making the same error that IBM made with OS/2 2.x and OS/2 3: happily stating that the possibility of running the binaries of another OS is a strong point of your OS.
Remember OS/2? IBM said that OS/2 run Win16 apps better than Windows. The result: nobody developed for OS/2, only for Windows, because it runs on Windows and OS/2.
Soon people will complain that nobody makes nothing for SCO. They should know why.

This only makes sense for all Unices to do

[Mike Greaves]

How could any flavor but Linux set the standard for compatibility? I guess a *BSD could - theoretically - if they had more market share, but a commercial flavor never could.

The source code for the reference implementation should be open in order to easily get really good compatibility among all implementations.

Linux will not be the only Unix implementation left - far from it. But Linux will be THE reference implementation of Unix for commodity desktop applications.

It will take more time - for Linux/SPARC, Linux/MIPS, etc. become more prevalent and mature. But then Solaris, Irix and everyone else will follow.

Then office apps will cover all Unices with just one source code base, little source configuration and just one binary version per processor family.

No need to bash SCO

[Fourway]

OpenServer is not a fantastic viciously cool mindblowing product, but it works for the most part if you do things the SCO way.
Like AIX, OpenServer is not the UNIX most likely to be chosen for a project by a seasoned admin with wide experience with a number of different UNIXen its a bit odd to admin, and skills taken from Solaris, BSD variants and Linux are liable to mess you up instead of help you.
But its not the sort of horrifying abomination that NT is.
SCO's purchase of UnixWare can only be seen as a good thing. UnixWare foundered under Novell. Its was barely supported, inexpertly maintained, mismarketed and essentially treated like a red headed stepchild.
SCO has put real energy into UnixWare, and whether or not their company survives has become tied to the success of UnixWare.
Why is that a good thing?
Because UnixWare is the one and only direct line decendant of ATT SysV, and it would have been evil and stupid if Novell had just let it die like it seemed they were going to.
So is this a win for Linux? Um... not really... but its a win for *nix, because it helps to keep one more flavor alive.

Unixware a reasonable unix?

[Galt]

I'm a self-respecting Unix person who works for Ingram Micro supporting SCO (as well as HP-UX and Linux in an unofficial capacity).

I'll admit that my we haven't had a huge amount of experience with Unixware, as most customers are staying with Openserver, but what experience I have had does not impress me.

First, why is it that you cannot set up dial-in and dial-out on the same port? And why does the first serial port always reset to PPP irregardless of what you have configured it as?

And why don't the ported administation tools reflect differences in the two operating systems (e.g. the username field in the accound administrator only accepts 8 character usernames whereas the rest of the tools accept 256 iirc.

And on that note, why is there little to no error handling in the tcl admin tools. I've had to go through dozens of tcl stack dumps from admin tools that wouldn't even start, only to discover it was because of a bad entry in a config file.

Openserver is even worse - the 5.0.5 print subsystem is 100% fubar, fixing a mistake in adding a device often requires editing half a dozen files some of which are C code, the amird driver in rs504c and 5.0.5 somehow screws up all console logins except for X's login, etc.

It is understandable why you would suggest skunkware tools over your own, as SCO tar doesn't have support for backup of empty directories or special files; cpio in one of its incarnations (I do not recal which) hangs when piped to more, etc.

And SCO has a major problem with support. A fair amount of techs working on the priority lines are definitely talented, but a lot of the front line support is imho (as well as most people I deal with) utter carp.

Linux compatibility layer

[JoeF]

I knew this for some time already.
A SCO representative showed a demo to the local Unix user's group last year, and he mentioned the so-called 'Linux compatibility layer' in the upcoming release of Unixware 7.
The irony of course is that Linux has its own SCO binary compatibility modules, iBCS. Apparently there are now more apps for Linux than for SCO.

Microsoft and Unix.....

[NikoDemous]

Actually, SCO and M$ have an agreement that stipulates that M$ will not create another Unix OS to compete with SCO (it actually bars them from the creation of a Unix OS period according to my attorney who is a intellectual properties attorney) so M$ shot itself in the foot with this one becuause I'll take any Unix over NT any day!


Nick
LSG

Relax, it was a *joke*

[scrytch]

Yeah, only Linux propoganda is allowed on slashdot. NT is Bad and Evil and Can't Do Anything and Clubs Baby Seals. Anything NT does well is a troll because NT can't do anything well. No thought toward anything positive in NT is allowed, because there is nothing positive.

Nice little lockstep march, ain't it?

And I thought SCO belongs to Microsoft.

[BiGGO]

isn't it?

What is the point

[Master Switch]

SCO is the lowest of the Uni*s. SCO is not a company that any self respecting Unix person would want to associate themselves with. The fact that they can now run Linux binaries simply means that they are trying to make themselves look better. They are dying, and they are trying to do anything to stay alive. As for Net BSD running Linux binaries, well that I can live with. The *BSD's are very respectable Uni*s. Linux takes alot of it's cue's from the *BSD flavors, so It's cool that Linux can give something back in the way of available binaries. Just say NO to SCO.

PS, No offence to you SCO admins and programmers, Hey, we all have to do what we have to do. It's SCO I don't like, not the people forced to use it.

Switching from SCO

[barries]

I work for a large company selling an Oracle on SCO solution.

Since they're forcing us in to a replace, but not upgrade from OpenServer to UnixWare, we're taking the opportunity to evaluate Linux. Let's just say that the baroqueness of SCO's installation, upgrading, and licensing schemes have us strongly considering Linux. I suspect that Linux might out perform UnixWare 7, too. Not that I'm pushing it internally at all, of course :-).

All that being said, I really like SCO supporting linux apps, since it should encourage more people to develop for linux first, then let the SCO compatibility layer handle the 'port' to SCO.

Now, if only TokenRing under Linux is more stable than TokenRing under OpenServer 5...

SCO is garbage. Funny...

[wakko]

I've never used SCO. I don't see why everyone can't just use what they want instead of being flamed by everyone else saying it sucks. That's a matter of oppinion and/or the admin.

Ever used AIX? We have 2 aix machines where I work and I really don't like it. I have my own linux machine at work. This kinda reminds me of the distribution wars. I use debian. I've seen redhat, but I wasn't impressed. That doesn't mean that someone else won't be.

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