The UNIX phoenix
Summary
Topics
Unix helped change the way the world computed. Even MS-DOS, whichintroduced Unix-style pipes and sub-directories in its second release, wasaffected. Unix gave Richard Stallman a stable and useful target when I nix, you nix, they nix, we all nix The Unix euphoria of the early days was gone by the end of the decade,which had seen vendors choose sides and celebrate the forking of Unix intoso many vendor-specific mutants. A combination of gross mismanagement bycreator AT&T, and urges for greed and power by its licensees (Sun, IBM,Digital, HP and SCO being the major culprits) stifled the potential ofopen systems. While Unix succeeded in making obsolete most one-vendor OSssuch as VMS and PrimeOS and was making its way into large-scale computing,the infighting left a gaping hole through which Microsoft successfullymarched its way into the server marketplace. Everything old is Unix again Linux has rekindled the early enthusiasm of Unix because it redefinesopenness beyond anything a Unix vendor could dream of. The same energy Isawin early Unix user groups (I was a director of Uniforum Canada for someyears) I see multiplied tenfold in the Linux world. Sure, commercialvendorshave become involved in Linux -- when was the last time IBM puffed aboutits Unix involvement as much as it now does for Linux But Unix still has value that the Linux crowd may vastly underestimatein its haste to issue a death certificate. The Unix movement got the worldthinking about computing standards such as It'll take some time for Caldera to figure out how to integrate what it hasjust obtained from SCO.The Unix legacy of AT&T's Bell Labs has passed through many hands in thepast ten years -- to Unix System Labs, to Novell, to SCO and now toCaldera -- which is an indication of its decreasing value in the face ofLinux and Microsoft. Indeed, Caldera now has so many different resourcesat hand -- from the most ivory of towers in R&D to a first class VARchannel -- that figuring out how to leverage them all will take more thana few weeks to figure out, and more than The last punt What is clear is that Unix -- the technology invented in the '70s at BellLabs, and the culture it created -- is far from dead. In many ways thismilestone is a rebirth rather than a death, in what can only be describedas a fulfillment of Unix's original promise of "open systems." (Maybe we should call the result of this metamorphosis "Newnix"?) Meanwhile, the company that profited the most from Unix's stumbling isinhot water again for bully tactics, and its leader is reduced to Life is good. Do you think Unix still has life? Tell Evan in the TalkBack below or in the
Many denizens of today's Linux bandwagon likely don't recall, or weren'taround, in the early, exuberant days of Unix. Powerful and portable, it wassupposed to bring back the original days of openness, a throwback to thepre-IBM days when most software was shared. Indeed, the term "opensystems" was once commonly used to describe Unix, before the phrase wasappropriated and destroyed by the various companies who sought to dominatethe Unixverse.
So if I'm not here to bury Unix, why does this sound like a eulogy sofar? Because it's impossible to correctly map out a future if you ignorethe past.
The Linux crowd wants everything opensourced. OpenServer VARs want to keepon selling their dead-end OS forever. Not everyone is going to get theiragenda completely met in the process. There are indeed many challengesfacing Caldera, and we'll examine them more closely next week. A fewthings appear certain, one of them being that this will be the last puntof the Unix legacy. Caldera offers a very capable environment in whichUnix can -- and will -- reinvent itself.
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Facebook Activity
