Project Monterey

Jim Whitehead (ejw@ICS.uci.edu)
Wed, 7 Apr 1999 14:07:59 -0700


Looks like SCO is re-branding its Unix, and is trying to build network
effects by getting others to sign on.

Strangely, SCO's Monterey pages <http://www.sco.com/monterey/> don't mention
Linux at all, but IBM's Monterey pages
<http://www.ibm.com/servers/monterey/> do, at
<http://www.ibm.com/servers/monterey/linux/index.html>. But, they just
point out that Linux apps are binary compatible, and can be re-ported
quickly. But this just begs the question:

* Since Linux is supported by many more developers than Monterey, and is
gaining Unix market share rapidly, why would a customer choose Monterey over
Linux (or other Unix variants?) What is the key discriminator?

Perhaps it is the Intel 64-bit architecture support. Does Linux support 64
bit systems yet?

I dunno, this just seems like an attempt by SCO to preserve/build Intel Unix
marketshare in the face of the Linux onslaught. This is somewhat supported
by their financials, which show a slowdown in sales the past two years.
However, SCO has been losing money for the past 4 years.
<http://www.sco.com/investor/annual_reports/1998/html/5yrinfo.html> But, Q1
1999 financial reports are positive. Hmmm.

- Jim