- The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) made a series of announcements this weeky at its user conference designed to demonstrate both the software vendor's increased commitment to Linux and highlight the transfer of two of its divisions to Linux distribution company Caldera Systems.
Earlier this month, Caldera announced plans to acquire two SCO divisions -- Server Software and Professional Services -- leaving the Unix vendor with Tarantella -- the part of SCO focused on software and services that help Web-enable applications.
With Caldera's acquisition of the pair of SCO units due to become final in October, SCO will take on the Tarantella name as its official corporate identity, SCO says.
Both the renaming and the purchase of SCO's two businesses for $US7 million in cash and 28% of Caldera's stock depend on shareholder and regulatory approval.
The two companies have already made plans to join Caldera's OpenLinux with SCO's Open Server and UnixWare to develop Open Internet Platform (OIP) for ISPs (Internet service providers) and companies alike. OIP combines Linux and Unix server applications and services. This week's announcement follow in these efforts to integrate the two vendors' technology.
In an effort to bring Unix into the Linux business market, SCO says it has developed the Linux Kernel Personality (LKP) for UnixWare 7. While keeping the major Unix attributes intact, the LKP technology helps unify UnixWare with Linux at the kernel level and includes a complete Linux environment.
Additionally, Linux applications can be installed and run on UnixWare 7 without the need for modification -- features the company says will give users a chance to utilise Linux applications and middleware.
SCO's Server Software division this week promoted a suite of enterprise support services to help customers with business and time-critical problems.
Compaq and Unisys have agreed to implement these services and will have SCO train and certify IT professionals on UnixWare 7 and UnixWare 7 NonStop Clusters software. Compaq and Unisys will sweeten the deal by giving business-critical support to SCO customers, the pair say in a statement.
SCO is due to give details on a deal with Nortel Networks and Computer Associates International (CA) that will outline joint initiatives in the ASP (application service provider) market, according to a SCO spokeswoman. She says customers have been asking SCO for this kind of collaboration.