August 28, 2000
by sjvn01
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Monterey Partners Miffed. IBM denies death of 64-bit Unix project.

BIG BLUE IS TRYING TO PUT a happy face on its 64-bit Unix strategy. But many people still are hopping mad over how IBM is handling the morphing of Project Monterey into AIX 5L, an upcoming operating system that’s supposed to run Linux, SCO UnixWare and IBM AIX apps.

Specificbones of contention include the name of IBM’s OS, as well as how much code will be used from joint development work with Monterey partners SCO and Sequent. Mostly however, Monterey watchers just want to be better informed about what IBM is really doing.

In presentations at IBM’s recent Solutions 2000 conference, IBM marketers told developers that AIX 5L–an OS ultimately slated to run on both the IA-64 and PowerPC processors–will add “Linux affinity” in release 5.1, due out next spring. “With AIX 5L, Project Monterey effectively goes away,” remarked Miles Barel, IBM’s program director for Unix marketing.

Unfortunately, though, all of IBM’s partners didn’t yet know about all of IBM’s plans. Deepak Advani, IBM’s director of Unix strategy, since has admitted that, as of last week, IBM still hadn’t informed Caldera about choosing the name AIX 5L. Caldera has announced plans to acquire SCO’s Unix operations (see related story, p. 26).

David McCrabb, president of SCO Server Software, says he was personally included in IBM’s loop. McCrabb is set to become president and COO of Caldera, assuming shareholders approve the deal.

Despite some market confusion, IBM’s Advani maintains that Monterey remains “alive,” pointing to continuing joint development work, as evidence.

But how much of Monterey’s code actually will show up in AIX 5L? The answer depends on whom you ask. After reading our online coverage of Monterey, Israeli resident Hetz BenHamo placed a string of trans-Atlantic phone calls to his IBM and SCO contacts. He says he was told that Project Monterey will contain only half of the features he had been expecting.

The relationship between IBM and SCO had been getting strained even before IBM’s announcement of AIX 5L, say industry analysts. According to Stacey Quandt of Giga Information Group, SCO staffers have worried that the 5L code will be mainly “an enhancement of IBM’s existing AIX.”

Last week, it was SCO’s turn to pull a surprise. SCO unveiled a new version of UnixWare, containing an application binary interface to Linux kernel personalities. SCO’s McCrabb disclosed that, even before the Caldera deal, SCO had been planning a Unix product of its own, respective of the joint development work of Monterey.

Meanwhile, some Monterey watchers accuse IBM of rewriting history. Dozens of people have flooded online forums to discuss the controversy. Many are unhappy over IBM’s apparent attempt to whitewash the fact that Project Monterey has changed course.

“IBM doesn’t like to admit they’re killing a project. Look what happened earlier with OS/2,” says Giga Group’s Quandt. Indeed, IBM never officially pulled OS/2’s plug, but no major upgrades are planned.

Originally Published in Sm@rt Partner, August 28, 2000

August 21, 2000
by sjvn01
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Not so Fast! Monterey Shambles On

IBM insists that Monterey really isn’t dead. Its just metamorphed into AIX 5L. too bad, Caldera/SCO, IBM’s main Monterey partner wasn’t told.

Ransom Love, Caldera Systems’ CEO said that IBM’s announcement that Monterey was completed “could not have been an official statement. We have partnership agreements with IBM and it would not be appropriate for IBM to declare the project done.” That said, Love agreed that many of Monterey’s goals had been completed. He also said that that the Linuxication of Monterey AIX 5L was a good thing for both AIX and Linux users.

Caldera/SCO’s take can be summed up as they can see why Monterey should move on. After all, with the advances of Project Trillian, 64-bit Linux for Intel, there’s little practical point to spending more time and effort on advancing another 64-bit Unix. IBM’s timing and presentation, however, are another matter.

Officially, IBM is saying “IBM has accomplished its objectives as set forth in the Project Monterey initiative.” In other words, that AIX 5L for the RS/6000 and IA-64 is simply Monterey taken to the next step. An executive at another Unix system vendor, however, icily commented that “Isn’t it hard to declare a project over when the silicon (IA-64) isn’t even ready for deployment?”

And, in fact, those next steps, however, aren’t completely laid out yet. An IBM spokesperson said today, “that not all the code of Project Monterey will not be included in the first release of AIX 5L; Version 5.0.” In past, though, IBM has also characterized Monterey as a version of Unix based on AIX as well as an evolutionary step in AIX.

Other observers were even more critical of IBM’s spin of its operating system news. Hetz Ben-Hamo, system administrator at Israeli software development company, Intercomp and open source developer, comments that, “more then HALF of what project Monterey features that should have been there – are not. Monterey is D-E-A-D! Only some parts of Monterey will be folded to the next version of AIX OS.”

August 14, 2000
by sjvn01
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Red Hat and Caldera get in the Ring

February 4, 2008–This is a look at a future that never happened. When Caldera bought SCO, we assumed it would stay in the Linux business. We assumed that Red Hat and Caldera/SCO would duke it out for the Linux championship of the world. Instead, Caldera turned on Linux, changed it name to SCO, and, oh yes, destroyed itself along the way.

I wrote this article with Joseph C. Panettieri, now editorial director at Nine Lives Media, in the summer of 2000. It was first published in Smart Partner on August 14th 2000. And, now with no further adieu, let’s look through a broken crystal ball at a Linux future that never happened.

Caldera chief executive Ransom Love is a Novell veteran who was a very early champion of Linux for business. While at Novell in 1994, he suggested that Linux might serve as the foundation for future NetWare or UnixWare releases. When his idea fell on deaf ears, Love and Brian Sparks (now chief exec of Caldera’s sister embedded-Linux company, Lineo) ran for the door and launched Caldera.

Not far behind them, Red Hat entrepreneurs Bob Young and Mark Ewing also spotted Linux’s business potential early. Today, Red Hat is the biggest pure Linux software company, in terms of annual revenue.

Company chairman Young, with his trademark red hat, arguably is the Linux industry’s most recognized personality. No offence intended, Linus Torvalds… Meanwhile, Red Hat president and chief executive Matthew J Szulik is making a name for himself cutting worldwide business deals with the likes of Dell.

Continue Reading →

August 7, 2000
by sjvn01
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Cell Phones: End Of Civilization Or Device Of The Devil?

If I hear one more cell phone ring in a theater, I will kill someone … and be found guilty of justifiable homicide by any jury of my peers.

Ever notice how as a society, we’re just plain ruder than we used to be? I have. Somehow, people assume that because they’ve got Nokia’s best and finest on their belt, they can conduct business anywhere, anytime.

Uh, pardon me, no you can’t. You’re not in a soundproof bubble; you’re talking over the movie I just paid $8.50 to see. I’m also none too fond of them in restaurants. I really don’t care to hear someone else’s personal business when I am munching on my salad. Do you?

Ever notice how everyone talks louder on a cell? I have. Mea culpa, though. I’ve done it. However, I turn my phone off at dinner unless I know I’ve got an urgent call coming in. OK, as a dad, I understand the need to be available for the babysitter. But, come on, you can head to the lobby before telling me, and everyone else in earshot, where little Timmy’s diaper rash ointment can be found.

Still, in a theater, at a concert–get over yourself. If you’re actually expecting life and death situations, stay home or get a vibrating cell phone.

Of course, the real problem is thinking that I should be interrupted at any time by an urgent call. As a journalist, being ready to pursue a story at the drop of a hat is part of the job. But, I know that I take that too seriously and it gets in the way of the fun parts of my life. But it seems to me that everyone is driven by the notion that their job is urgent and ever present in their life. I don’t know about you, but I see this as just another example of how technology, instead of freeing us, has shackled us even more tightly to work.

Remember when companies were reluctant to let people work from their homes for fear that they wouldn’t work as hard? Some people doubtlessly still find Jerry Springer more interesting than work, but most employers have picked up on the fact that even people who aren’t dyed-in-the-wool workaholics (ah, me, for example) will act like one given the right home-office accessories.

The enchantment of instant communications has proven a siren song for far too many. If you fall prey to it, you’re likely to lose way too much of your life to your job. And, ah folks, I make that mistake all the time, and it’s not one that I really want anyone else to make. Life is too short.

OK, if you’ve got a big merger deal where every minute counts, that’s urgent. But come on, most of the time, most of us don’t live urgent lives. It just seems that way because cell phones, beepers and the like make it easy for us to feel like life is crashing in on us all the time. We need to learn–not just for the sake of people around us, but for our own sake–the difference between urgent and important.

First published in Sm@rt Partner

July 24, 2000
by sjvn01
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Caldera And SCO Deal Nearly Finalized

Linux distributor Caldera is one step closer to purchasing SCO’s Unix business lock, stock, and barrel. Sources close to the negotiations report that Caldera top brass and board of directors, along with SCO’s CEO Doug Michels, have signed off on the deal. Only SCO’s board needs to put pen to paper to make the deal happen. SCO hopes to announce the done deal on Tuesday, July 25, the same day that SCO is due to announce its earnings for its fiscal third quarter.

Rumors of the deal have caused SCO stock volume to increase several times above its usual midweek. Despite that, SCO and Caldera’s stock prices have shown little movement. No dollar figure on the deal was available at press time.

Particulars regarding the deal remain sketchy. What seems certain, however, is that Caldera will end up with SCO’s e-Business Server division. In turn, that means that Caldera will get to use the Unix trademark; both shipping versions of UnixWare; SCO Open Server 5 Unix; and oversight of the older, no-longer-commercial versions of Unix. It also seems that Tarantella, SCO’s remote application middleware, may yet end up going to Caldera as well, but sources were less clear on this point.

Caldera also is expected to pick up SCO’s other Unix partnerships, including the IBM-dominated Monterey project devoted to creating a universal 32/64-bit Unix that will run on Intel’s IA-64 Itanium.

While some observers have commented that a Linux company suddenly becoming a Unix power could upset such alliances, Caldera already has partnership relationships with IBM of its own. IBM is investing in Linux for the long haul, as further evidenced by its announcement Friday to spend $200 million in Europe over the next four years to set up Linux development centers.

It’s unclear if Caldera will continue to enhance and maintain the existing SCO product lines, although from a customer standpoint, that would seem to make sense. Given Caldera’s open-source record, it also seems likely that some SCO Unix source code potentially could be released under an open-source license. Given that Caldera will own the Unix trademark, don’t be surprised if Caldera Linux ends up being sold under the Unix brand. It’s seems a given that elements of the SCO Unix family will be incorporated into Caldera’s OpenLinux lines and vice versa.

Interesting times are ahead as Caldera and SCO prepare to formally marry Unix and Linux.

A version of this story first appeared in Smart Partner.

June 14, 2000
by sjvn01
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New kid on the Linux block: SCO

PC Unix stalwart SCO is doing the inevitable — or the unthinkable, depending on your interpretation. It is expected to field its own Linux operating system in the fourth quarter of this year. SCO is expected to make its Linux plans public sometime this summer.

SCO officials refused to comment, but sources said a SCO Linux distribution is definitely in the works. A shipping version is due in the fourth quarter, with advanced Internet service and 64-bit versions expected in the first quarter of 2001.