SCO marketplace now open to developers

The controversial provider of Unix-based solutions aims to "extend opportunities to Unix developers while augmenting the company's ability to bring sought after technologies to the SCO customer base".

SCO Marketplace was first announced at the SCO Forum, the company's annual partner conference, as an opportunity for the developer community to contract for SCO development projects.

"SCO Marketplace should create greater opportunities for developers to work more closely with SCO. This will allow SCO to advance the capabilities of their UNIX products while also providing developers with the opportunity to use their programming skills and development expertise," said Paul Gregory, a US-based SCO solution provider with G8B Solutions LLC.

Initial projects available at SCO Marketplace include the development of device drivers and the porting of various Open Source applications to SCO UNIX platforms.

SCO group chief executive officer, Darl McBride said the company expected the marketplace to evolve over time to become an online distribution engine.

"In the future, we would like to augment our efforts around SCO Marketplace to go from a site for third-party developers to gain money-making opportunities through development projects, to a site that becomes an online distribution engine for business applications from a wide variety companies and solution providers," McBride said.