Editing SCO Group (section)

=== Software releases and e-commerce initiatives SCOBiz and SCOx ===
[[Image:Bellingham data center building 2003.jpg|thumb|right|As part of the SCOBiz joint initiative, executives from The SCO Group and Vista.com inspect the latter's data center operations in Bellingham in January 2003]]

In addition to reviving SCO's longtime operating system products, the SCO Group also announced a new venture, SCOBiz.<ref name="eweek-namechange"/>   SCOBiz was a collaboration with the [[Bellingham, Washington]]-based firm Vista.com, founded in 1999 by John Wall,<!--in 2005 merged with Innuity, Inc. --> in which SCO partners could sell Vista.com's online, web-based e-commerce development and hosting service targeted at small and medium-sized businesses.<ref name="eweek-namechange"/>  More importantly, as part of SCOBiz, the two companies would develop a [[SOAP]]- and [[XML]]-based [[web services]] interface to enable Vista.com e-commerce front-ends to communicate with existing back-end SCO-based applications.<ref name="reg-namechange"/>  Industry analysts were somewhat skeptical of the chances for SCOBiz succeeding, as the market was already crowded with [[application service provider]] offerings and the [[dot-com bubble]] had already burst by that point.<ref name="reg-namechange"/><ref name="lj-namechange-2"/>

Lastly, SCO announced a new program for partners, called SCOx.<ref name="eweek-namechange"/> A key feature of SCOx was a buyout option that allowed SCOx solution providers to sell their businesses back to SCO.<ref name="eweek-namechange">{{cite news | url=https://www.eweek.com/servers/caldera-renames-itself-sco-group/ | title=Caldera Renames Itself SCO Group | author-first=Peter | author-last=Galli | magazine=eWeek | date=August 26, 2002}}</ref>  McBride stated that the program would give partners a chance at "living the American dream".<ref name="reg-namechange"/>

The company's financial hole was emphasized when it released its results for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2002{{snd}} it had lost $25&nbsp;million on revenues of $64&nbsp;million.<ref name="starts"/>

The previously announced operating system releases began appearing, beginning with a Linux release.  Caldera International had been one of the founders of the [[United Linux]] initiative, along with [[SUSE S.A.|SuSE]], [[Conectiva]], and [[Turbolinux]], and the newly-named SCO Linux 4 came out in November 2002, in conjunction with each of the other vendors releasing their versions of the United Linux&nbsp;1.0 base.<ref name="iw-sl4">{{cite news | title=Comdex: SuSE, SCO quick to jump on UnitedLinux bandwagon; Ximian also throws its weight behind UnitedLinux 1.0 | magazine=InfoWorld | date= November 20, 2002 | via= Gale General OneFile <!-- (accessed October 31, 2021). --> | url= https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A94585123/ITOF?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=32d1d026 | author-first=Ed | author-last=Scannell}}</ref>  The SCO product was targeted towards the small-to-medium business market, whereas the SuSE product was aimed at the enterprise segment and Conectiva and Turbolinux were intended mostly for the South American and Asian markets.<ref name="iw-sl4"/>  The common United Linux base (which mostly came from a SuSE code origin), and the promise of common certification across all four products, attracted some support from hardware and software vendors such as IBM, HP, Computer Associates, and SAP.<ref name="iw-sl4"/><ref name="eweek-sl4"/>  An assessment of SCO Linux&nbsp;4 in ''[[eWeek]]'' found that it was a capable product, although the [[Webmin]] configuration tool was seen as limited when compared to [[YaST]], SuSE's own operating system configuration tool.<ref name="eweek-sl4">{{cite news | url=https://www.eweek.com/servers/sco-linux-4-is-rough-around-the-edges-but-shows-promise/ | title=SCO Linux 4 Is Rough Around the Edges but Shows Promise | author-first=Jason | author-last=Brooks | magazine=eWeek | date=January 6, 2003}}</ref>  In terms of service and support, SCO pledged to field a set of escalation engineers that would only be handling SCO Linux issues.<ref name="iw-sl4"/>

The new Unix operating system releases then came out.  UnixWare 7.1.3 was released in December 2002, which featured improved Java support, the [[Apache Web Server]] framework, and improvements to the previously developed Linux Kernel Personality (LKP) for running Linux applications.<ref name="adt-uw713">{{cite news | url=https://adtmag.com/articles/2002/12/04/sco-brings-back-unixware.aspx | title=SCO brings back UnixWare | author-first= Michael W. | author-last=Bucken | magazine=Application Development Trends | date=December 4, 2002}}</ref>  In particular, the SCO Group stated that due to superior multiprocessor performance and reliability, Linux applications could run better on UnixWare via LKP than they could on native Linux itself,<ref name="adt-uw713"/> a stance that dated back to Santa Cruz Operation/Caldera International days.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/08/22/scaldera_vows_a_better_linux/ |title=Scaldera vows a better Linux than Linux |author-first=Andrew |author-last=Orlowski |work=The Register |date=August 22, 2000}}</ref> One review, that found UnixWare 7.1.3 lacking in a number of other respects, called LKP "the most impressive of UnixWare's capabilities".<ref name="osn=uw713"/>  SCO OpenServer 5.0.7 was released in February 2003; the release emphasized enhanced hardware support, including new graphic, network and HBA device drivers, support for [[USB&nbsp;2.0]], improved and updated [[Uniform Driver Interface|UDI]] support, and support for several new Intel and Intel-compatible processors.<ref>{{cite press release | title=SCO Ships SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 | publisher=PR Newswire | date= February 24, 2003 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/446983603 | id={{ProQuest|446983603}} | via=ProQuest}}</ref>

The SCOx software framework was announced in April 2003;<!-- ... so this initial SCOx is NJ work, *before* S and B join ... but it is after the lawsuits start --> its aim was to enable the SCO developer and reseller community to be able to connect web services and web-based presentation layers to the over 4,000 different applications that ran small and midsize businesses and branch offices.<ref name="crn-scox-first">{{cite news | url=https://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/18823566/sco-group-to-roll-out-web-services-framework.htm | title=SCO Group To Roll Out Web Services Framework | author-first= Paula | author-last=Rooney | publisher=CRN News | date=April 30, 2003}}</ref>  The web services aspect of SCOx included bundled SOAP/XML support for the Java, C, C++, PHP, and Perl languages.<ref name="nw-scox-first"/>  A primary target of the SCOx framework was SCOBiz e-commerce integration, although other uses were possible as well.<ref name="crn-scox-first"/>  The planned SCOx architecture overall was composed of layers for e-business services, web services, SSL-based security, a mySCO reseller portal, hosting services, and a software development kit.<ref name="nw-scox-first">{{cite news | url=https://www.networkworld.com/article/2342039/sco-web-enables-apps-for-small-enterprises.html | title=SCO Web-enables apps for small enterprises | author-first=Mark | author-last=Gibbs | magazine=Network World | date=May 14, 2003}}</ref>

But by then, these software releases and e-commerce initiatives had become overshadowed by legal actions.