The Santa Cruz Operation has released a more detailed roadmap for its Gemini UnixWare-OpenServer merged product which it is expecting to ship before the end of this year, a slippage from its original summer launch date. SCO is also seeking to assure its OEMs and customers of the company’s commitment to its older OpenServer offering. UnixWare system five release five (SVR5), as Gemini is now known, will initially be targeted as a replacement for existing customers of the previous Novell Inc version of UnixWare and for internet, departmental database management systems, replicated sites and dedicated systems. By mid-1998 SCO says it will be pitching it instead as an OpenServer replacement and for small to medium business server, mail/messaging and Intranet workgroups. At SCO Forum, its annual customer conference in Santa Cruz, California, the company said it now expects a second release of Gemini, in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, at the same time as the upcoming 64-bit processor from Intel, codenamed Merced. At the show Intel would only say it expects to release the chip sometime before the end of the decade.
Gradual migration
Geoff Seabrook, SCO vice president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India said: We mustn’t disenfranchise the OpenServer path…those guys [SCO resellers] are our lifeblood. Asked if SCO is happy about the way it has executed its plans in the past, Seabrook commented: We had problems over Xenix [the company’s venerable Unix-like operating system]. We stopped developing the product but the VARs kept shipping. We didn’t pay enough care and attention to our partners. SCO claims to have learnt its lesson and is better prepared this time round. It has been working on the necessary migration tools to enable a smooth crossover from OpenServer to UnixWare for nearly two years. The company says it is being careful to manage the transition for users of previous versions to the new Gemini release and will continue to release new device drivers for OpenServer. SCO is banking on its Universal Development Kit to tap into its existing install base and provide the impetus for the hoped for migration from its existing OpenServer and UnixWare SVR4 lines to UnixWare SVR5. The kit will supposedly allow developers to write compatible applications over all three platforms. Doug Michels, executive vice president and chief technical officer at SCO says it won’t be a case of forcing people to move. He expects a gradual migration at the customers’ comfort level and the company concedes it may be two to three years before all the existing users move over.
