Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 10:34:00 +0100 From: "Greg Quinlan" <Greg.Quinlan@swlct.sthames.nhs.uk> To: "Pat Lynch" <lynch@bsdunix.net>, "Adrian Wontroba" <aw1@stade.co.uk> Cc: <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>, "Greg Quinlan" <Greg.Quinlan@swlct.sthames.nhs.uk> Subject: Re: More SCO Propaganda Message-ID: <001601befdcb$20e94720$5214010a@swlct.sthames.nhs.uk> References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9909111225120.2002-100000@bytor.rush.net>
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Well my apologies to the people of SCO. I must point out that I had been involved with SCO from about '86 when it was just Xenix 2.x, and sold the product to my customers for years, singing the praises of Unix/Xenix. But unfortunately it all went a bit pear shaped with later releases ... and I lost a lot of respect for SCO in general. My major gripes were that the OS was not stable anymore, there were major problems fundamentally with it. In one instance I was almost sued by a company because SCO's PPP did not work. (some time later SCO dumped-it for another PPP product.) This would not have been so bad but the distributor maintained there was nothing wrong.....until it was proven... I could go on and on .... Problems with TCP, Problems with patches not installing, symbolic links lost everywhere.... If something went wrong ...well, you needed to reinstall..... I had one customer that I could not install the OS because the boot floppy (N1) would not recognise an IDE CD-ROM and a SCSI hard disk combination... I even got told that it was supported. Then-the saga of moving from unlimited user version to limited (16.32, ...512) trying to explain to customers that it was just so they could identify and look after their customers better. Ohh... yes then there was the saga with registration, with the very first version of OSR5.... I called all the numbers for the on-line registration, all around the world (when I was in Australia) none of them were connected....except one, so I had to wait all night at a client (that was a 3hr drive from my Office,) until 5.00am to ring SCO direct in the US to get a registration code ..... In the early days of SCO, I seemed to be first to encounter problems.... I stuck by them and played the game.... then gave up.... if I had access to some source ...well I was dreaming..... and now I use FreeBSD where-ever possible, but support HP-UX, Digital Unix, SUN-OS, and SCO, but not Linux that was just as bad, (although friends say I should give it another chance) So the moral to the story is: I carefully looked at other OS's and selected FreeBSD. ;) Anyway, you probably know why I'm so surprised that they give the Open Source arena such great support. As for skunkware they do not support it or have enhanced-it!? As for staying in business ... well they lost mine... Greg ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat Lynch <lynch@bsdunix.net> To: Adrian Wontroba <aw1@stade.co.uk> Cc: Greg Quinlan <Greg.Quinlan@swlct.sthames.nhs.uk>; <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Sent: Saturday, September 11, 1999 5:30 PM Subject: Re: More SCO Propaganda > THis is extremely true, having known some of the people over at SCO. > People like Kean Johnston and ROn Record (Kean was at outr FreeBSD dinner > at USENIX) are believers in Open Source (ROn puts together the skunkware > CD) and believe it or not, they are p0artial to FreeBSD for the Open > Source OS choice (well at least Kean is ;)) > > I nticed thier committment to Open Source back at the '98 USENIX > conference in New Orleans, and even more recently at the '99 conference in > Monterey. I'm pretty impressed personally, and Ron's a pretty knowledgable > guy. THey also employ alot of people in that department to put together > the skunkware cd's as well as the other free software that they distribute > now with the OS (gnome,kde,etc.) > > Kudos to SCO for maintaining the commercial UNIX of thier own, while > really battling for Open Source. They do have to stay in business though, > so good luck getting SYS V source ;) > > -Pat > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > > Pat Lynch lynch@rush.net > lynch@bsdunix.net > Systems Administrator Rush Networking > ___________________________________________________________________________ > > On Fri, 10 Sep 1999, Adrian Wontroba wrote: > > > (moving from stable to chat) > > > > On Fri, Sep 10, 1999 at 11:37:50AM +0100, Greg Quinlan wrote: > > > http://www.sco.com/profservices/linux/ > > > > > > I see that SCO is coming to the rescue of OpenSource Unix environments, with > > > risk assessment, stability, and most of all expertise. > > > > > > I quote: > > > > > > "we believe that SCO has the largest staff of Open Source experts of any > > > commercial software vendor." > > > > > > "As a founding sponsor of Linux International, SCO is a strong proponent of > > > the Open Source movement, citing it as a driving force for innovation. Over > > > the years, SCO has contributed source code to the movement." > > > > > > ~~~~~ > > > > > > It's just lucky for us that SCO is there to drive forward Open Source!! > > > (huge sarcasm)!! > > > > > > Does anyone know if they done anything for FreeBSD Sability? :) > > > > Not all the sarcasm is deserved. Until I saw the light, and the cost > > benefits, I ran SCO UNIX and then OpenDeathTrap. SCO had quite a > > positive attitude to what is now called Open Source. Some of their > > developers were very helpful and active in the SCO news groups and > > mailing lists. Header files and libraries were available for the base > > system so that you could use gcc rather than the ever so expensive > > development system (I think). There were, still are for all I know, > > the periodic Skunkware CDs, chock full of ported and compiled freeware, > > which SCO would send to you for free. > > > > Their claim to having the largest staff of Open Source experts of any > > commercial software vendor could well be true. I'm sure that they do > > believe the Open Source approach and attendant innovation is overall > > good for them. While they will loose a few sales to organisations who > > switch to Linux or *BSD, the majority of their customers seem to be > > prepared to pay lots for the product, and more for support. > > > > Yes, a competitor, but a friendly one. They don't seem to have any > > ambitions to take over the entire OS market, just enlarge their niche. > > > > -- > > Adrian Wontroba > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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