Will SCO Distribution Deal Placate Partners?

The SCO Group has finalized a contract naming supply-chain provider Synnex as a distributor, a deal seen by some as a sign that SCO is de-emphasizing its Linux legal woes by making a renewed commitment to the SCO Unix platform.

Since 2003, The SCO Group Inc. has been highly visible on industry radar screens for its bitter legal fight to win IP (intellectual property) rights and royalties around Linux.

But after dropping out of the Linux market once the battle had begun, the software vendor also has continued to sell products based on SCO Unix, its flagship Unix operating system for PCs, to SMBs (small and midsized businesses).

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In a partnership unveiled this week, Synnex Corp. joins Tech Data Corp. as one of two major distributors for SCO Unix in North America.

Under the deal, SCO UnixWare, SCOoffice Service, Reliant HA and other SCO Unix software products now will be sold through Synnex Canada Ltd., a Synnex subsidiary that recently bought Canadian-based hardware and software distributor EMJ Data System Ltd.

Some veteran reseller partners insist that despite SCOs longstanding legal disputes involving Linux, the vendors support for SCO Unix never has wavered.

“SCO never really unfocused on SCO Unix. Its just that the [ongoing] focus on SCO Unix hasnt been all that well-known,” said Rene Baltran, director of sales and marketing at DTR Business Systems.

Baltran told The Channel Insider that he first heard about the deal between SCO and Synnex last summer, long before its announcement this week.

“It doesnt really impact us much. Synnex is in a different space from us. We provide value-added services,” the SCO Unix reseller said.

But other SCO VARs are less certain about the software vendors loyalty to SCO Unix, and some have given thought to leaving the SCO fold entirely, according to observers.

“The [original] SCO Unix product was more flexible and versatile than just about anything out there at the time [for PCs]. But lately, the SCO brand has become very, very radioactive,” said Joe McKendrick, an analyst at Evans Data Corp.

“Im sure that some of SCOs channel partners have become quite nervous over the past year and a half or so. SCO has kind of poisoned itself with all this litigation around Linux. Its image [with customers] has been hurt in the process. Some might even say that SCO has been selling its own dealers up the river,” McKendrick told The Channel Insider.

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