[Smaug] SCO - was A quick scripting puzzle

[cerise@armory.com]

Man, I was wondering if we'd scared you off, dude ; )

-Phil/CERisE

On Mon, Nov 21, 2005 at 01:32:06PM -0800, Mr. B wrote:
> Howdy Meg!
> Do you remember your favorite Sys admin from SCO? Yup
> it is I Barrett in the flesh. Talk to you soon.
> 
> --- Anthony Ettinger <apwebdesign at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > ot
> > 
> > --- Meg McRoberts <dreidellhasa at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > This is very interesting...  How many ex-SCO-ites
> > > are
> > > on this list?  This isn't exactly how it looked
> > from
> > > the inside...
> > > 
> > > Xenix ran on the 286.  SCO UNIX was based on the
> > > SVR3
> > > kernel, which SCO licensed from AT&T.  I think the
> > > original
> > > UNIX systems SCO produced were marketed as SCO
> > UNIX,
> > > then
> > > the marketing folks changed the name to OpenServer
> > > to reflect
> > > what was then an "open architecture" -- certainly
> > > not Open
> > > Source but with full support for third party
> > > software at
> > > both the user and kernel level.  As I recall, for
> > a
> > > year
> > > or two, we had the non-graphical SCO UNIX and
> > > OpenServer
> > > was SCO UNIX with X11 and the graphical desktop on
> > > top.
> > > 
> > > We did invest a lot in providing backward
> > > compatibility
> > > for Xenix drivers and applications and almost
> > > everything
> > > did run on OpenServer.
> > > 
> > > SCO had a phenomenal licensing agreement for the
> > > SVR3
> > > kernel so it was never feasible to port to an SVR4
> > > base
> > > although we incorporated many SVR4 features into
> > the
> > > OpenServer kernel.
> > > 
> > > UnixWare as well as ownership of all the SVR
> > kernels
> > > came
> > > with the 1995 acquisition.  The original plan was
> > to
> > > do
> > > a system that incorporated the elegant kernel
> > > technology
> > > of UnixWare with the OpenServer user interface,
> > > which was
> > > very popular with the customers.  Alas, political
> > > skirmishes
> > > prevented that from happening at the time although
> > I
> > > hear
> > > that the new release does exactly that.
> > > 
> > > It is interesting that the view from outside SCO
> > is
> > > that,
> > > since SCO could run most Xenix applications and
> > > drivers,
> > > it WAS Xenix...
> > > 
> > > meg
> > > 
> > > --- Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Quoting cerise at armory.com (cerise at armory.com):
> > > > 
> > > > > OpenServer took much of its userspace from SCO
> > > XENIX and much of the
> > > > > underlying structure from SCO UNIX.
> > > > 
> > > > There was an import of some code into XENIX from
> > > SysV r3, under
> > > > a licence deal from AT&T -- not from "SCO UNIX",
> > > as there was (really)
> > > > no such thing at the time.  (See below.)
> > > > 
> > > > [The Open UNIX aka ex-UnixWare product:]
> > > > 
> > > > > I can only attest to a horrible userspace.
> > > > 
> > > > Oh yeah.  
> > > > 
> > > > I was proud owner in around 1989 of AT&T System
> > V
> > > release 3.22, which I 
> > > > picked up for $50 from Data Preference in San
> > > Mateo:  It was just
> > > > thoroughly awful in dozens of ways, including
> > the
> > > absence of "Berkeley 
> > > > enhancements" that were later merged into the
> > > system when they created
> > > > System Vr4.  It didn't last long on my system,
> > > since I knew from using
> > > > BSD at Evans Hall, UCB, that Unix didn't _have_
> > to
> > > suck that badly.  The 
> > > > only part that I kept (for a decade) was the
> > shelf
> > > of manuals that came
> > > > with it.  That part was cool.  
> > > > 
> > > > I also bought and used for a while, a couple of
> > > years later, one of
> > > > Novell's UnixWare releases (based, obviously, on
> > > SysVr4).  That was one
> > > > of the ones that included the ability to run
> > Win16
> > > desktop applications,
> > > > which was really wacky to see on your Motif/X11
> > > desktop.  The suckage
> > > > was gone, but it was a little ponderous and
> > slow,
> > > and I pitched it for
> > > > 386BSD 0.1 and later Linux.
> > > > 
> > > > > Now, SCO UNIX (also known as SCO SystemV/386)
> > > coexisted with XENIX
> > > > > (and, in fact, I have a handy driver book here
> > > which details the
> > > > > differences between the two and the steps
> > needed
> > > to port drivers from
> > > > > one to the other.  That particular line
> > > disappeared as OpenServer
> > > > > became the clear choice between the two.
> > > > 
> > > > Um, "SCO System V/386" was yet another name for
> > > one of the XENIX
> > > > releases.  It's entirely possible they might
> > have
> > > paid AT&T the
> > > > necessary trademark licensing fees to use the
> > name
> > > "UNIX" for one of
> > > > those, but it really never was _UNIX_ in the
> > sense
> > > that its foundational
> > > > kernel, libs, and other basic architecture were
> > > still XENIX, not UNIX.
> > > > That was the product line that eventually came
> > to
> > > be called Open Server,
> > > > which is what they (or rather, their Utah
> > > successor in interest) call it
> > > > now.
> > > > 
> > > > That's all one product, not two.  XENIX = SCO
> > > System V/386 = Open Server.
> > > > If they called that thing "SCO UNIX" during the
> > > pre-Novell-deal time
> > > > period (which is possible, though I never saw
> > it),
> > > then that was
> > > > strictly a marketing label:  It was still really
> > > XENIX.
> > > > 
> > > > SCO didn't have a "genetic" UNIX (to borrow
> > Peter
> > > Salus's term) until
> > > > the 1995 purchase of certain (disputed) UnixWare
> > > rights from Novell.
> > > > _That_ is SCO Group's second product line.
> > > > 
> > > > But, frankly, I considered both of them pretty
> > > terrible even compared to
> > > > 386BSD 0.1.  ;->
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > > Smaug at lists.svlug.org
> > > > http://lists.svlug.org/lists/listinfo/smaug
> > > > Smaug home page: http://www.scruz.org/
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > 
> > 
> > 
> > Anthony Ettinger
> > ph: (408) 656-2473
> > web: http://www.apwebdesign.com
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> 
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