“The long-trailed deal between Caldera Systems – the Linux part
of Caldera, rather than Lineo, the separate but blood-related
embedded Linux company – and SCO has happened. Caldera is acquiring
SCO’s Server Software and Professional Services divisions, leaving
SCO with Tarantella and the revenue stream from SCO
OpenServer.”
“Caldera was only interested in the compatible SCO business, so
SCO is now able to continue its strong competition with Citrix, for
whom the deal must be very bad news.”
“The deal is interesting because of the complex and somewhat
incestuous relationship between Caldera, SCO, Microsoft, Citrix,
and Novell. Microsoft acquired SCO shares as a result of
getting SCO, founded in 1978 by Doug and Larry Michels, to produce
a version of Unix called Xenix. Microsoft had licensed Unix from
AT&T, and the product was first marketed in 1979. In 1987,
Microsoft was concerned that AT&T’s Unix applications might not
run with Xenix. As a consequence, AT&T agreed to add some Xenix
code to its Unix and to pay Microsoft a royalty for this.”