UnixWare is a

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

. It was originally released by

Univel Univel, Inc. was a joint venture of Novell and AT&T's Unix System Laboratories (USL) that was formed in December 1991 to develop and market the Destiny desktop Unix operating system, which was released in 1992 as UnixWare 1.0. Univel existed ...

, a jointly owned venture of

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

Unix System Laboratories Unix System Laboratories (USL), sometimes written UNIX System Laboratories to follow relevant trademark guidelines of the time, was an American software laboratory and product development company that existed from 1989 through 1993. At first wh ...

(USL) and

Novell Novell, Inc. () was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as NetWare. Novell technolog ...

. It was then taken over by Novell. Via

Santa Cruz Operation The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. (usually known as SCO, pronounced either as individual letters or as a word) was an American software company, based in Santa Cruz, California, that was best known for selling three Unix operating system variants ...

(SCO), it went on to

Caldera Systems Caldera International, Inc., earlier Caldera Systems, was an American software company that existed from 1998 to 2002 and developed and sold Linux- and Unix-based operating system products. Caldera Systems was created in August 1998 as a spinoff ...

Caldera International Caldera International, Inc., earlier Caldera Systems, was an American software company that existed from 1998 to 2002 and developed and sold Linux- and Unix-based operating system products. Caldera Systems was created in August 1998 as a spinoff ...

, and

The SCO Group The SCO Group (often referred to SCO and later called The TSG Group) was an American software company in existence from 2002 to 2012 that became known for owning Unix operating system assets that had belonged to the Santa Cruz Operation (the o ...

before it was sold to

UnXis Xinuos is an American software company that was created in 2011. It was first called UnXis until assuming its current name in 2013. (Both names are variations on the spelling of the Unix operating system.) Xinuos develops and markets the Unix-ba ...

(now Xinuos). After the acquisition of SCO by Caldera, the name was briefly changed to Open UNIX before being reverted to the original name in the next release. Binary distributions of UnixWare are available for

x86 architecture x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. T ...

computers. UnixWare is primarily marketed and deployed as a

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides requested information for other programs or devices, called clients. Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending custome ...

operating system.

History

Univel (1991–1993)

After the SVR4 effort to merge

SunOS SunOS is a Unix-branded operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems from 1982 until the mid-1990s. The ''SunOS'' name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4, which were based ...

and

System V Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, an ...

(USL) formed the

partnership with

to develop a desktop version of Unix for

i386 The Intel 386, originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386, is the third-generation x86 architecture microprocessor from Intel. It was the first 32-bit processor in the line, making it a significant evolution in the x86 archite ...

and

i486 The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor introduced in 1989. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the i386, Intel 386. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the Inte ...

machines, codenamed "Destiny". Destiny is based on the Unix System V release 4.2 kernel. The

MoOLIT MoOLIT (Motif OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit) is a graphical user interface library and application programming interface (API) created by Unix System Laboratories in an attempt to create a bridge between the two competing look-and-feels for Unix wo ...

toolkit is used for the windowing system, allowing the user to choose between an OPEN LOOK or MOTIF-like look and feel at runtime. In order to make the system more robust on commodity desktop hardware, the

Veritas In Roman mythology, Veritas (), meaning Truth, is the Goddess of Truth, a daughter of Saturn (mythology), Saturn (called Cronus by the Greeks, the Titan (mythology), Titan of Time, perhaps first by Plutarch) and the mother of Virtus (deity), Vi ...

VXFS

journaling file system A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of changes not yet committed to the file system's main part by recording the goal of such changes in a data structure known as a " journal", which is usually a circular log. In the ev ...

is used in place of the UFS file system used in SVR4. Networking support in UnixWare includes both

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

and interoperability with Novell's

NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The final update release was ver ...

protocols (

IPX/SPX IPX/SPX stands for Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange. IPX and SPX are networking protocols used initially on networks using the (since discontinued) Novell NetWare operating systems. They also became widely used on networks ...

); the former were the standard among Unix users at the time of development, while PC networking was much more commonly based on NetWare. Destiny was released in 1992 as UnixWare 1.0, with the intention of unifying the fragmented PC Unix market behind this single variant of the operating system. The system was earlier to reach the corporate computing market than Microsoft's

Windows NT Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...

, but observers of the period remarked that UnixWare was "just another flavor of Unix", Novell's involvement being more a marketing ploy than a significant influx of technology. There two editions of Destiny: a ''Personal Edition'', which includes Novell

IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) is the network-layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol suite. IPX is derived from Xerox Network Systems' IDP. It also has the ability to act as a transport layer protocol. The IPX/SPX protocol suite was very ...

networking but not

, and an ''Advanced Server'' Edition with TCP/IP and other server software. The personal edition is limited to two active users, while the server edition includes an unlimited user license. Around 35,000 copies of UnixWare 1.0 were sold. In 1992, UnixWare 1.0 Personal Edition came with DOS Merge 3.0 and Novell's DR DOS 6.0. In 1993, Novell purchased USL from AT&T and merged USL and Univel into a new Unix Systems Group.

Novell (1993–1995)

In 1994 Novell released UnixWare 1.1, which includes TCP/IP in both the personal and advanced server editions. The MOTIF 1.2 runtime libraries are included for COSE compliance. NUC (NetWare Unix Client) software is included for integration with Novell

servers. The Advanced Merge application is installed on both the server and personal editions to allow running

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

and

Windows 3.1 Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series run as a shell on top of MS-DOS; it was the last Windows 1 ...

applications. Novell later released bug-fix versions 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3 and finally 1.1.4 on 19 June 1995. UnixWare 2.0, based on the Unix System V release 4.2MP kernel, which added support for

multiprocessing Multiprocessing (MP) is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. The ...

, began shipping to OEMs and developers in December 1994, and to the consumer market in March 1995. Both the personal and server editions support two processor systems, with the possibility of buying extra Processor Upgrade licenses for the server edition. Supported multiprocessor systems include standard Intel MP 1.1 SMP machines and Corollary C-bus systems. The system supports

ODI network drivers in an effort to increase the number of supported network interfaces. Other new features in the release include a

POSIX Threads In computing, POSIX Threads, commonly known as pthreads, is an execution model that exists independently from a programming language, as well as a parallel execution model. It allows a program to control multiple different flows of work that ov ...

library in addition to the older UI threads library. Before SCO licensed UnixWare in 1995, Novell had also announced a project to create a "

SuperNOS Novell, Inc. () was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as NetWare. Novell technology ...

" based on NetWare 4.1 and UnixWare 2.0 technologies in the future. This never materialized. Instead, a NetWare 4.10 server on Linux was offered as Caldera NetWare for Linux for OpenLinux since 1998, and Novell's

Open Enterprise Server Open Enterprise Server (OES) is a server operating system published by OpenText. It was first published by Novell in March 2005 to succeed their NetWare product. Unlike NetWare, OES is a Linux distribution—specifically, one based on SUSE Lin ...

finally came in 2005.

Santa Cruz Operation (1995–2001)

In 1995, the

(SCO) acquired UnixWare from Novell. The exact terms of this transaction were disputed (see SCO vs Novell); courts have subsequently determined that Novell retained the ownership of Unix. When the transfer was made public SCO announced that it would work towards merging UnixWare with its

OpenServer Xinuos OpenServer, previously SCO UNIX and SCO Open Desktop (SCO ODT), is a closed source computer operating system developed by Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), later acquired by SCO Group, and now owned by Xinuos. Early versions of OpenServer were ...

SVR3.2 based OS, but the first release of UnixWare from SCO was version 2.1 in 1996. At the release of UnixWare 2.1 it was announced that the proposed UnixWare/OpenServer merger was known as project Gemini, to be available in 1997 and a 64-bit version of UnixWare was to be developed for 1998. One controversial change was the adoption of an OpenServer-like user licensing policy. The Univel and Novell releases of UnixWare allow 2 users on the personal edition or unlimited numbers of users on the server edition. With UnixWare 2.1 the server edition includes a license for up to 5 users. Customers wanting more users could purchase 10, 25, 100, 500 or unlimited user license extensions. SCO released three updates to UnixWare 2.1. UnixWare 2.1.1, released in 1996 achieved Unix 95 branding. UnixWare 2.1.2 and 2.1.3, available in 1998, are largely bug fix releases. In 1998

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

released a package known as the Integrity XC consisting of a

single-system image In distributed computing, a single system image (SSI) cluster is a cluster of machines that appears to be one single system. The concept is often considered synonymous with that of a distributed operating system, but a single image may be presente ...

cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study the magnetosphere * Asteroid cluster, a small ...

of Proliant servers with a version of UnixWare 2.1, UnixWare NonStop Clusters. The first results of the Gemini project were made available in early 1998 as UnixWare 7. SCO named the kernel version Unix System V release 5. The system is largely based on UnixWare 2.1, with features for driver compatibility with OpenServer, allowing use of OpenServer network drivers. System administration utilities from OpenServer, scoadmin, replace the original UnixWare sysadm utility. Major new features of UnixWare 7 include multi-path I/O, large files and file systems and support for large memory systems. UnixWare 7 lacks the

Xenix Xenix is a discontinued Unix operating system for various microcomputer platforms, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T Corporation. The first version was released in 1980, and Xenix was the most common Unix variant during the mid- to late-1980s. T ...

compatibility features of both its ancestors. In 1999 SCO released the UnixWare 7.1 update which increased the number of editions; the Business (5-user), Department (25 user) and Enterprise (50 user) editions replace the earlier personal and server editions. The WebTop application from Tarantella, Inc. is included. In 2000 SCO released the UnixWare 7.1.1 update. Simultaneously the UnixWare NonStop Clusters 7.1.1+IP

package was released. This new package allows commodity hardware to be used as well as the proprietary Compaq hardware supported by the earlier Integrity XC product, and was directly available from SCO.

Caldera Systems, Caldera International and The SCO Group (2000–2011)

On 2 August 2000,

(SCO) announced that it would sell its Server Software and Services Divisions, as well as rights to the OpenServer and UnixWare products, to

. In March 2001, Caldera Systems became

(CII), and the SCO purchase was completed in May 2001. The remaining part of the Santa Cruz Operation company, the Tarantella Division, changed its name to Tarantella, Inc. Caldera International's initial release of UnixWare was renamed Open UNIX 8. The name change was intended to highlight the addition of the "Linux Kernel Personality" compatibility layer to the operating system. This release is what would have been UnixWare 7.1.2. Caldera International renamed itself to

in August 2002, after broadening its product line to include mobile products and services. Later, the newly renamed The SCO Group reverted to the previous UnixWare brand and version release numbering, releasing UnixWare 7.1.3 and 7.1.4. No further releases were made under the Open UNIX name. The SCO Group continued to maintain UnixWare and issues periodic maintenance updates and support. Between 2007 and 2011, The SCO Group engaged in a series of legal battles. In September 2007, The SCO Group filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wh ...

.The SCO Group Files Chapter 11 to Protect Assets as It Addresses Potential Financial and Legal Challenges
The SCO Group, Inc. press release, 14 September 2007 On 11 April 2011,

bought The SCO Group operating assets and intellectual property rights after having been approved by the bankruptcy court in Delaware. The SCO Group, Inc. then renamed itself TSG Group, Inc., and SCO Operations, Inc. became TSG Operations, Inc., and in August 2012 filed to convert from Chapter 11 to

Chapter 7 Chapter Seven refers to a seventh Chapter (books), chapter in a book. Chapter Seven, Chapter 7, or Chapter VII may also refer to: Albums * Chapter Seven (album), ''Chapter Seven'' (album), a 2013 album by Damien Leith. * Chapter VII (album), ''Ch ...

UnXis and Xinuos (2011–present)

The rights to Unixware, as well as OpenServer, were acquired by UnXis in 2011. In June 2013 UnXis was renamed as Xinuos and announced product and availability for SCO UnixWare 7.1.4+, now supporting both physical and virtual machines.

Version history

SCO Skunkware and open source

All versions of UnixWare have included significant

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

components including

BIND BIND () is a suite of software for interacting with the Domain Name System (DNS). Its most prominent component, named (pronounced ''name-dee'': , short for ''name Daemon (computing), daemon''), performs both of the main DNS server roles, acting ...

X11 The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been at ...

Sendmail Sendmail is a general purpose internetwork email routing facility that supports many kinds of mail-transfer and delivery methods, including the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) used for email transport over the Internet. A descendant of t ...

DHCP The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks for automatically assigning IP addresses and other communication parameters to devices connected to the network using a clie ...

Perl Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language". Perl was developed ...

Tcl TCL or Tcl or TCLs may refer to: Business * TCL Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics and appliance company ** TCL Electronics, a subsidiary of TCL Technology * Texas Collegiate League, a collegiate baseball league * Trade Centre Limited ...

and others. Later releases are bundled with numerous additional open source applications including

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

Samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

MySQL MySQL () is an Open-source software, open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A rel ...

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL ( ) also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source software, free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. PostgreSQL features transaction processing, transactions ...

, OpenSSH, and

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

software, as well as amenities such as

Sudo () is a shell (computing), shell command (computing), command on Unix-like operating systems that enables a user to run a program with the security privileges of another user, by default the superuser. It originally stood for "superuser do", a ...

, Vim,

Tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black b ...

Gzip gzip is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression. The program was created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, and ...

, and

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...

RPM Package Manager RPM Package Manager (RPM) (originally Red Hat Package Manager, now a recursive acronym) is a free and open-source package management system. The name RPM refers to the file format and the package manager program itself. RPM was intended primar ...

All versions of SCO operating system distributions including UnixWare also have an extensive set of open source packages available for free download via the

SCO Skunkware SCO Skunkware, often referred to as simply "Skunkware", is a collection of open-source software projects ported, compiled, and packaged for free redistribution on Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) operating environments. SCO Skunkware packaged compon ...

site.

References

External links

SCO UnixWare 7.1.4 Data Sheet (PDF)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unixware Novell operating systems UNIX System V X86 operating systems