Re: Research questions WRT SCO's complaint

on Sun, Mar 09, 2003 at 12:14:01PM +0000, Bjorn Reese ([email protected]) wrote:
> "Karsten M. Self" wrote:
>
> >   - What x86 Unices have there been?  When did they emerge?  I'm aware
> >     of Xenix (which became SCO), Solaris X86, BSDi, FreeBSD, OpenBSD,
>
> Please note that SCO owns two different Unices: UnixWare and
> OpenServer. They have different origins, so it may be important
> to distinguish between the two. OpenServer originates from Xenix,
> UnixWare from the original UNIX.

Any information on timelines for these?

> >   - Unix marketshare.  Does anyone have values for breakdown of
> >     marketshare through the 1990s of the major Unix flavors?  My
> >     understanding is that SCO was never much more than a bit player in
> >     the x86 market.  Possibly a fair number of deployments, but low
> >     overall valuation.
>
> SCO used to be the leader in the x86 market.
>
> The only numbers I could find was from the press release below,
> claiming 40% of the market -- although the numbers only seem to
> include commercial Unices. If you go further back a couple of
> years, I seem to recall that they had the same market share,
> even if you count the free Unices, but I cannot find any number
> to confirm this.
>
> http://stage.caldera.com/press/releases/1998/6805.html

Specifically "40.8% market share for new product licenses shipped in
1997" -- that's a unit count, not a sales dollar volume, metric.  I
suspect that the dollar sales represent at best a very small share of
the market.  Revenues for 4Q1997 (presumably based on similar shipping
vlume) were $57m.  The same press release also announces a "partnership
with IBM", presumably Project Monterey, to "jointly develop and deliver
a UNIX operating system family that works on Intel and IBM
microprocessors".

    SCO Announces Fiscal 1998 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results
    SANTA CRUZ, CA (October 26, 1998)

    http://stage.caldera.com/press/releases/1998/6832.html


The actual announcement was Oct 28, 1998:

    http://stage.caldera.com/press/releases/1998/6831.html

Anyone got actual unit shipment numbers for SCO?

...and the presence of other x86 Unices is acknowledged directly here,
with a head-to-head against Solaris on identical x86 iron:

   The UnixWare System Leads Performance Stakes in AIM Technology's "Hot
   Iron Awards", Dominates Intel Category and Powers Five of the 10 Top
   Servers

   http://stage.caldera.com/press/releases/1998/6822.html

   SANTA CRUZ, CA (September 9, 1998) - SCO announced today that its
   UnixWare operating system dominated AIM Technology's Hot Iron Awards,
   which were held on Tuesday, September 8, 1998 at the Palace Hotel in
   San Francisco, California.

Peace.

--
Karsten M. Self <[email protected]>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
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