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Re: unix and microsoft



> if I remember right some of the trademarks of unix belong to microsoft.
> in the early days of pc and before they ported UNIX to pc's under the
> name (i'm sure all of the veterans remember) : XENIX that later was
> bought by SCO.
> but still they have the rights to the name XENIX and since nobody
> manufacture XENIX today they can use this name.....

OK, but some corrections:

1. Nothing of UNIX belongs to Microsoft.
2. 11% of SCO's stocks belong to Microsoft.
3. SCO doesn't own any trademark of UNIX (except for its own
   commercial names: Xenix, SCO-UNIX, UnixWare, etc.).
4. SCO owns only the source code of UNIX (yes!  It belongs to SCO!).
5. The trademark of "UNIX" was sold by USL (a past division of AT&T)
   to Novell, who sold it to the X/Open (now The Open Group). Before
   sold, it required the original source code of AT&T; But then a
   special verification suite was developed, so operating systems
   based on competing source code (such as OSF/1) could pass the
   tests (that's why OSF/1 was allowed to rename to "Digital-UNIX").
6. Microsoft does not have any interest by holding 11% of SCO;
   Moreover, it will serve their interests if SCO will crash (maybe
   it explains the bad financial status of SCO). The benefit from
   the potential earnings of the stock (which only cut...), is small
   money in relative to the damage UNIX causes Microsoft.
   SCO is one of the companies which sue Microsoft in the DoJ trial
   against Microsoft.
7. Both operating systems of SCO (UnixWare and Open Server) don't
   need Microsoft's help or source-code in order to run Windows
   applications; Both support SCO-Merge, a product which allows them
   to run all Windows applications (including Win95/Win32) perfectly
   (Merge was OEMed from Platinum, the giant who bought our Memco).

Actually, I had a long talk with Doug Michels (CEO and president of
SCO). Before leaving, I asked him why Bill still hold its 11%. He
laughed, told some jokes, and then said (more seriously): "I think
he wants to know what is going there" (my description: those 11%
give Microsoft a seat in the board of SCO, so they can "spy" and
know what is going with UNIX and with the owner of the main source
code of UNIX). In any case, even Doug Michels could not be sure why
they hold the 11%.

-- 
Eli Marmor