Xinuos OpenServer, previously SCO UNIX and SCO Open Desktop (SCO ODT), is a closed source computer

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

developed by

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), later acquired by

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 ...

, and now owned by

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

. Early versions of OpenServer were based on

UNIX 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 ...

, while the later OpenServer 10 is based on

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

10.

History

SCO UNIX/SCO Open Desktop

SCO UNIX was the successor to the

's variant of Microsoft

Xenix Xenix is a discontinued version of the Unix operating system for various microcomputer platforms, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T Corporation in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) later acquired exclusive rights to the software, ...

, derived from UNIX System V Release 3.2 with an infusion of Xenix device drivers and utilities. SCO UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2.0 was released in 1989, as the commercial successor to SCO Xenix. The base operating system did not include

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

networking or

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wi ...

graphics; these were available as optional extra-cost add-on packages. Shortly after the release of this bare OS, SCO shipped an integrated product under the name of SCO Open Desktop, or ODT. 1994 saw the release of SCO MPX, an add-on SMP package. At the same time, AT&T completed its merge of Xenix, BSD,

SunOS SunOS is a Unix-branded operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The ''SunOS'' name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4, which were based on BSD, while versions 5.0 an ...

, and UNIX System V Release 3 features into UNIX System V Release 4. SCO UNIX remained based on System V Release 3, but eventually added home-grown versions of most of the features of Release 4. The 1992 releases of SCO UNIX 3.2v4.0 and Open Desktop 2.0 added support for long

file name A filename or file name is a name used to uniquely identify a computer file in a directory structure. Different file systems impose different restrictions on filename lengths. A filename may (depending on the file system) include: * name &ndas ...

s and

symbolic link In computing, a symbolic link (also symlink or soft link) is a file whose purpose is to point to a file or directory (called the "target") by specifying a path thereto. Symbolic links are supported by POSIX and by most Unix-like operating syste ...

s. The next major version, OpenServer Release 5.0.0, released in 1995, added support for ELF executables and dynamically linked shared objects, and made many kernel structures dynamic.

SCO OpenServer

SCO OpenServer 5, released in 1995, would become SCO's primary product and serve as the basis for products like PizzaNet (the first Internet-based food delivery system done in partnership with

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and desse ...

) and SCO Global Access, an Internet gateway server based on Open Desktop Lite. Due to its large installed base, SCO OpenServer 5 continues to be actively maintained by SCO with major updates having occurred as recently as April 2009. SCO OpenServer 6, based on the merging of AT&T

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser 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, ...

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 ...

Release 4.2MP and UnixWare 7, was initially released by

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 ...

in 2005. It includes support for large files, increased memory, and multi-threaded kernel (light-weight processes). This merged codebase is referred to as UNIX System V Release 5 (SVR5) and was used only by SCO for OpenServer 6; SVR5 is not used by any other major developer or reseller. SCO OpenServer 6 contains the UnixWare 7's SVR5 kernel integrated with SCO OpenServer 5 application and binary compatibility, OpenServer 5 system administration, and OpenServer 5 user environments. SCO OpenServer has primarily been sold into the small and medium business (SMB) market. It is widely used in small offices,

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

(POS) systems, replicated sites, and backoffice database server deployments. Prominent larger SCO OpenServer customers include

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includi ...

Big O Tires Big O Tires, LLC. is one of North America's largest retail tire franchisors, with more than 450 independently owned and operated locations extending through 23 states primarily in the Western and Midwestern United States. It is headquartered in P ...

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation ( doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costc ...

pharmacy,

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

, The

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the ...

Banco do Brasil Banco do Brasil S.A. ( en, Bank of Brazil) is a Brazilian financial services company headquartered in Brasília, Brazil. The oldest bank in Brazil, and among the oldest banks in continuous operation in the world, it was founded by John VI, King ...

, many banks in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, and the railway system of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

UnixWare merger

SCO purchased the right to distribute the UnixWare system and its System V Release 4 code base from

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 Novell NetWare. Under the le ...

in 1995. SCO was eventually able to re-use some code from that version of UnixWare in later releases of OpenServer. Until Release 6, this came primarily in the compilation system and the

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People * Udi Gal (born 1979), Israeli Olympic sailor * Udi Vaks (born 1979), Israeli Olympic judoka ...

driver framework and the USB subsystem written to it. By the end of the 1990s, there were around 15,000

value-added reseller A value-added reseller (VAR) is a company that adds features or services to an existing product, then resells it (usually to end-users) as an integrated product or complete "turn-key" solution. This practice occurs commonly in the electronics or IT ...

s (VARs) around the world who provided solutions for customers of SCO's Unix systems. SCO announced on August 2, 2000, that it would sell its Server Software and Services Divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, 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 ...

, Inc. The purchase was completed in May 2001. The remaining part of the SCO company, the Tarantella Division, changed its name to

Tarantella, Inc. Tarantella was a line of products developed by a branch of the company Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) since 1993. In 2001, SCO was renamed Tarantella, Inc. as it retained only the division that produced Tarantella. On July 13, 2005, Tarantella, Inc. ...

, while Caldera Systems became

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 subsequently in 2002, the

Under The SCO Group

The SCO Group continued the development and maintenance of OpenServer. On June 22, 2005, OpenServer 6.0 was released, codenamed "Legend", the first release in the new 6.0.x branch. SCO OpenServer 6 is based on the UNIX System V Release 5 kernel, a merged codebase of UNIX System V Release 4.2MP and UnixWare 7. OpenServer 6.0 features multi-threading application support for C, C++, and Java applications through the POSIX interface. OpenServer 6 features kernel-level threading (not found in 5.0.x). Some improvements over OpenServer 5 include improved SMP support (support for up to 32 processors), support for files over a terabyte on a partition (larger network files supported through NFSv3), better file system performance, and support for up to 64GB of memory. OpenServer 6.0 maintains backward-compatibility for applications developed for Xenix 286 onwards. The SCO Group went bankrupt in 2011, after a long series of legal battles.

UnXis / Xinuos (2011–present)

The rights to OpenServer, as well as UnixWare, were acquired by UnXis in 2011, which was later renamed

. In June 2015, Xinuos announced OpenServer 10, which is based on the

10 operating system. Simultaneously, Xinuos introduced a migration path for existing customers using older OS products. In December 2015, Xinuos released "definitive" versions of OpenServer 5, OpenServer 6, and UnixWare 7. In December 2017, Xinuos released "Definitive 2018" versions of OpenServer 6 and UnixWare 7, and in October 2018 OpenServer 5 Definitive 2018 was released. The "Definitive 2018" releases were a commitment by Xinuos to keep the legacy OS's updated and supported protecting the applications that customers need to continue to run. The Definitive 2018 products contain major updates over the Definitive releases and a soon to be announced updated development kit which will make it easier to compile current packages for the Definitive 2018 products. Xinuos has continued to provide updates for the new flagship operating system OpenServer 10.

Versions

References

External links

SCO OpenServer 6.0 (deprecated) home page

SCO OpenServer 5.0.7 (deprecated) home page

SCO OS FAQ (3.2v4.2 and 3.2v5.0.x)

Review
in Linux Journal {{DEFAULTSORT:Openserver FreeBSD UNIX System V