SCO OpenServer 6 Pushes Unix Line Forward

SCO OpenServer 6 Pushes Unix Line Forward
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After years of development, SCO's OpenServer 6 arrives packed with UnixWare and open-source applications.After years in the making, SCO OpenServer 6 has finally been released. OpenServer 6 is the first major upgrade to SCOs flagship Unix operating system since its parent companies, Caldera and Santa Cruz Operations, merged in 2000.

The SCO Group Inc. has perhaps been better known for its contractual and intellectual-property fights with IBM, Novell Inc. and Red Hat Inc. in recent years. Recently, the company seems to be focusing on its Unix product lines: OpenServer 6 and UnixWare 7.

Despite some conflict with the open-source community over issues such as the legality of the Gnu GPL (General Public License), SCO has included numerous open-source programs in OpenServer 6.

These include the MySQL and PostgreSQL DBMS, the Apache Web server, Tomcat, OpenSSH and OpenSSL, Samba file and print services, and many others. The new OpenServer also supports UnixWare 7.1.4, Xenix and J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) 1.4.2 applications.

To read more about SCOs focus on Unix operating systems, click here.

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While meant primarily as a server operating system, OpenServer also offers a nod to desktop use. Besides its native interface, OpenServer comes with a KDE-based desktop with such applications as the Mozilla and Firefox browsers and OpenOffice.org office suite.

OpenServer also comes with multithreaded application support and native Unix System V Release 5 Unix kernel support. The preemptive SVR5 kernel supports multithreading for C, C++ and Java applications via its POSIX interface.

SCO and Novell get their day in court. Read more here.

The new OpenServer also supports file sizes up to 1TB (terabyte) for both disk-based and network files. File systems can also grow as large as 1TB, and larger network files are supported through NFS (Network File System) Version 3.

On the processor side, OpenServer 6 can handle up to 32 AMD or Intel processors and 16GB of general-purpose memory, while additional memory can be dedicated for special applications, allowing databases to access up to 64GB of memory.

SCO OpenServer 6 is available now. SCO encourages customers to work through their local resellers.

The operating system is available in two editions: the Starter Edition, priced at $599, and the Enterprise Edition, priced at $1,399. The Starter Edition provides a two-user license and supports up to 1GB of system memory and one processor. The Enterprise Edition provides a 10-user license and supports up to 4GB of system memory and four processors.

"The shipment of SCO OpenServer 6 is the culmination of extensive customer feedback, testing by hundreds of product beta testers, certification testing with dozens of SCO software and hardware partners, and significant preparation by SCO engineering, support, marketing and sales teams," said SCO CEO Darl McBride in a statement.

"Our resellers and customers can feel confident in deploying SCO OpenServer 6 for the increased performance, security and reliability that they have come to depend on from SCO," McBride said.

Click here to read about partner reaction to SCOs distribution deal with supply chain provider Synnex.

SCOs partners, which had been looking forward eagerly to OpenServer 6s release, agreed with McBride. "I think that OSR6 will be playing a big role in our business in the years to come," said Deepak Thadani, president of SysIntegrators LLC, a New York-area solutions provider and SCO partner.

"With the release of SCO OpenServer 6, HP continues to build on our leadership position of supporting SCO UNIX operating systems on HP ProLiant servers," said Paul Miller, Hewlett-Packard Co.s vice president of marketing for industry standard servers.

To further support the new Unix, HP will also be releasing a robust portfolio of "OpenServer 6 certifications on HP ProLiant platforms, storage, and networking options offering customers the best managed infrastructure for SCO deployments," Miller said.

Computer Associates International Inc. is also supporting OpenServer. "With the availability of CAs Ingres r3 on SCO OpenServer 6, customers have an open systems server platform and an open-source DBMS on which they can fulfill even the most demanding systems requirements," said Emma McGrattan, CAs vice president of Ingres development.

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