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Norris Did Attend SCO's Tec Forum; Investors "Excited" About Prospects
Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 06:15 AM EST

It turns out that Stephen Norris did attend SCO's Tec Forum after all, at least according to SCO's latest SCO Partner News newsletter someone sent me. He expressed that SCO's strengths are its customers and its products. That's why the investors he says he represents are "so excited about the business prospects of working with SCO" and in particular because of SCO's commitment to backward compatibility of "all its products -- going all the way back to Xenix". Hmm.

Here's the part about Norris:
OPPORTUNITY

SCO has, as you might be aware, been in discussions with many investors over the past several months. Stephen L. Norris, of Carlyle Group in Washington DC, has been in discussions with SCO officers over the past several months. Talks have focused on a major capital infusion that will bring us out from Chapter 11 reorganization. Jeff Hunsaker, president of SCO Operations, Darl McBride, president of The SCO Group, and Stephen L. Norris, formed a discussion panel to conclude the Keynote presentation.

Norris spoke of his interest in SCO, and in building upon the strengths and commitments that were identified earlier in the keynote presentation. He said that the strengths which he sees as vital to SCO's future are its customers and its products.

"SCO finds itself in the enviable position of having products that are part of a seventeen billion dollar industry," he said. "Why the investors whom I represent are so excited about the business prospects of working with SCO is the commitment of SCO to backward-compatibility of all its products -- going all the way back to Xenix -- and the loyalty of customers like yourselves."

SCO Forum Breakout Sessions -- Presentations

As usual, Forum had a number of technical breakout sessions. All presentations for the following sessions are available here: http://www.sco.com/2008forum/presentations.html

Norris isn't with the Carlyle Group. He used to be so that part isn't truthful. It's certainly true that SCO has always issued fixes and patches for all its products, including Xenix via its support page. They made them available free of charge as what they called Support Level Supplements (SLS). Speaking of Xenix, if you take a look on this page that SCO now labels"retired products", but which it internally calls itself the SLS page you'll find this paragraph:
Support Level Supplements are provided to our customers to fix problems reported in our products. SCO Support makes every effort to insure these fixes are safe, effective and have them available in a timely manner. Due to the wide variety of hardware platforms and software combinations that exist in the field, we sometimes discover problems with a Supplement. Even if the percentage of customers who might exhibit the problem is very small, it is our policy to remove the Supplement from distribution and re-cut a new fix as quickly as possible.
And on that list of products, you'll find not only UnixWare but also Xenix and UNIX SysV mentioned:
compress286 15076 (15235) Compress Utility for SCO XENIX 286
compress386 20296 (46874) Compress Utility for SCO XENIX 386

lng225b.Z 23001 (17190) International Crypt Supplement
lng225b.ltr.Z 3524 (04949) SCO UNIX Development System Release 1.0

SCO XENIX 386 Development System, Release 2.2.0 and above
SCO XENIX 286 Development System, Release 2.2.0 and above

lng244.Z 664313 (33039) 2.3.1 XENIX Development System SLS
lng244.ltr 4940 (46570) SCO XENIX 2.3 Development System

lng271.Z 44816 (14302) /lib/ldr Support Supplement
lng271.ltr 1777 (48844) SCO XENIX 386 2.3 Development System

SCO UNIX System V/386 Development System
SCO Open Desktop Development System

lng311b.v1 1228800 (34086) OSF/Motif 1.1.2 Development System Libraries
lng311b.v2 1228800 (47378) SCO Open Desktop Dev Sys Release 1.0.1
lng311b.v3 1228800 (42218) SCO Open Desktop Dev Sys Release 1.0.2
lng311b.v4 1228800 (11975) SCO Unix System V/386 Release 3.2 Dev Sys with
lng311b.v5 1228800 (53986) SCO TCP/IP System Release 1.1
lng311b.ltr 6646 (61115)

lng350.Z 321996 (16356) C++ Supplement for
lng350.ltr.Z 5293 (37695) SCO UNIX System V/386 Development System and SCO Open Desktop Development System

lng353a.Z 635405 (54150) Unix Development System Compiler SLS for
lng353a.ltr.Z 2316 (15779) SCO UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2 version 4.0 and SCO Open Desktop Release 2.0

net362b.Z 160450 (23534) CDROM SLS for NFS 1.2.0
net362b.ltr.Z 3631 (11644)...

net382e.Z 928162 (29715) Enhanced TCP/IP 1.2.1 Drivers
net382e.ltr.Z 6750 (52213) TCP/IP Release 1.2.1

SCO UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2 Version 4.2
SCO Open Desktop Lite Release 3.0
SCO Open Desktop Release 3.0
SCO Open Server Network System Release 3.0
SCO Open Server Enterprise System Release 3.0
NOTE ON net382e:

This SLS supersedes SLS net382a, net382b, net382c, net382d and net372a, as it contains all fixes that are part of these earlier SLSs and more. It is safe to install this SLS on top of any of the five previous SLSs, but the older SLSs should not be installed on top of SLS net382e.

net382e.Z has been compressed with the -H option. You must have a SCO UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2 Version 4.0 or higher to uncompress the file.

net387a.Z 77987 (50862) AMD and Racal Interlan LLI Driver SLS for
net387a.ltr.Z 1770 (57731) SCO LLI Drivers Release 3.4.0

net398b.Z 923291 (46368) NFS 1.2.1 Supplement
net398b.ltr.Z 4400 (16609) See this file for platform information

nsc1009d.Z 6894483 (17447) SLSs for NonStop Clusters
nsc1009d.txt 17544 (05729) UnixWare 7 NonStop Clusters Release 7.1.1a

(posted 08-DEC-00)

nsc1011f.Z 8450247 (22485) SLSs for NonStop Clusters Release 7.1.1+IP
nsc1011f.txt 36629 (60884) UnixWare 7 NonStop Clusters Release 7.1.1+IP

(posted 21-MAR-01)

I can't help but notice the dates, 2000 and 2001. I knew that in 1995 SCO had SYSV as a separate product from UnixWare. But didn't Darl testify that the only way to get SysV was by getting UnixWare? "System V was always licensed through UnixWare," he testified. But here we see patches being issued to UNIX SysV in 2000, do we not? So evidently there were customers out there using SysV and not UnixWare, since those patches and upgrades and fixes are listed separately. Evidently, my logical brain concludes, it isn't so that it was always the case that the only way to get Unix SysV was by getting UnixWare.

  


Norris Did Attend SCO's Tec Forum; Investors "Excited" About Prospects | 141 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Corrections here
Authored by: NigelWhitley on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 06:27 AM EST
Please indicate the nature of the correction in the title where possible
e.g. Korrect-->correct

-----------------
Nigel Whitley

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off-topic here, please
Authored by: overshoot on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 06:28 AM EST
There are lovely instructions in red on the form.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Newspicks comments
Authored by: overshoot on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 06:43 AM EST
Please indicate in the "Title:" which newspick you're discussing.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Virtualised Xenix. That'll come in handy (NT)
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 07:09 AM EST
.

[ Reply to This | # ]

backward-compatibility of all its products
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 07:16 AM EST
Does that include the Caldera Linux products as well? That was between Xenix and
now as far as I can recall.

[ Reply to This | # ]

In Apr 1995 there was no SCO Unixware
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 07:48 AM EST
The referenced docs here predate the deal with Novel, so at that time there was
no such thing as SCO Unixware.

The SYSV code referred to is the SVR3 code base that became OpenServer, not the
SRV4 base that became Unixware

[ Reply to This | # ]

Who's going to be doing these patches?
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 08:15 AM EST
Since SCO "rightsized" the majority of their actual developers, who
does Norris think is going to be supporting those legacy products now?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Norris Did Attend SCO's Tec Forum; Investors "Excited" About Prospects
Authored by: Steve Martin on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 08:16 AM EST

But didn't Darl testify that the only way to get SysV was by getting UnixWare? "System V was always licensed through UnixWare," he testified.

One department of my workplace ran on "SCO System V/386" (which I administered) for a few years, and I can tell you authoritatively that we have never, ever run UnixWare. So I guess McBride forgot all about that product. (Interesting that the CEO of a company which claims to be The Santa Cruz Operation seems to have forgotten all about one of his own product lines.)

---
"When I say something, I put my name next to it." -- Isaac Jaffe, "Sports Night"

[ Reply to This | # ]

SCO's Roadmap
Authored by: sk43 on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 09:04 AM EST
Much more interesting in the newsletter is the section where Andy Nagle presents
SCO's roadmap. Or rather, what is NOT on SCO's roadmap. Back in 2005, SCO's
roadmap touted something called "Project Fusion":

http://ir.sco.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=170510
"SCO's ongoing UNIX strategy and roadmap will focus on a powerful new
product code-named Project Fusion. Based on the new 64bit UNIX SVR6 kernel
technology, Project Fusion will deliver an Operating System for the Internet
age."

According to Sandeep Gupta, "With the completion of Project Legend and
thereby recent release of OpenServer 6, all of our development efforts are now
streamlined on a single common source base and are geared towards
innovation,"

Any sign of 64 bits in 2008? Any sign of a single codebase? Didn't think so.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Norris was booted out of Carlyle
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 10:42 AM EST
The blurb's claim representing "Norris of Carlyle Group in Washington, DC." is wrong.

Norris was famously booted out of Carlyle. Others in that organization have spoken about his erratic and disingenous behavoir at Carlyle.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Do they really know?
Authored by: Tufty on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 11:41 AM EST
>
investors ... are so excited ... the loyalty of customers like yourselves.
<

Loyal enough to get sued? Are the investors looking forward to more law suits
against customers?

Tufty


---
Linux powered squirrel.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Norris' other stock: Stratos Renewable
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 11:53 AM EST
Stephen Norris is vice-chairman of Stratos Renewable. SRNW.ob is an over-the-counter issue that seeks to develop a sugar cane/ethanol industry in the desert coast of northern Peru. Norris was appointed vice-chairman in June. An associate Tom Snyder is now CEO, after a reorganization this fall.

Recent SEC filings shed some light on the Norris involvement. A Peruvian founder of the company sold some 8.5 million shares of the company for 1/10 and 5/10 of a penny per share netting some $28,500 in the sale. The Peruvian resigned, and is now invovled in another company named PureBiofuels of Humble, Texas.

On the same day in June as the stock sale, Norris, promoter Stephen Magami, a Brazilian named Sanjay Pai, and the Beverley Hills-based company secretary acquired shares equal to the sale by the Peruvian. Norris' personal stake in the company is 2,000,000 shares at 0.001 cents per share (or $2,000 total investment)

The Brazilian is in the news today (Nov 13) because he is marketing the company at a German investor conference. Equally oddly, the stock dropped to 0.80 cents today on a sale of 2,077 shares, its first market sale in literally weeks.

Source: Edgar SEC Form 3 filing for Norris

Sanjay Pai Marketing company in Germany

[ Reply to This | # ]

Xenix is 25+
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 05:40 PM EST
My first Unix admin job was on MS/Tandy Xenix in 1983. I still have the old box
around here somewhere. Motorola 68000 chip with 1M RAM and a 5M HD.It used an
TRS80 as a front-end i/o processor.We had 8 serial terminals attached and ran a
small business with 12 employees out of it; books, HR, taxes, and some technical
apps I built out of Visicalc.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Norris Did Attend SCO's Tec Forum; Investors "Excited" About Prospects
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, November 14 2008 @ 09:53 AM EST
SCO's chunk of 17 billion is now what
3457$
haha this guy is prolly been told by someone around MS to prop them up until
windows 7 comes and crashes worse then vista did.

Fact is its DEAD company , has no trust with anyone.
Not only threatening linux users in general but then sueing customers and
clients and (stupidly) large large corporate powers like IBM and novel.

go ahead spend your cash more of it that gets destroyed the less power greedy
people have, in fact i would say i hope they do do a deal and waste idiot money
more.

[ Reply to This | # ]

More Wall Street Snake Oil
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, November 14 2008 @ 11:33 AM EST
"We" all have been talking (here) about SCO's SNAKE OIL for awhile.
Lately (this last year) we have found out that SNAKE OIL is what WALL STREET has
been all about for the last 10 years - at least. Yes I am talking about the SUB
PRIME SNAKE OIL.

SCO has been a mirror of what is really going on with the so-called FREE
MARKET/CAPITALISTIC SYSTEM in the USA.

Yes it's all about SNAKE OIL.

[ Reply to This | # ]

I suspect...
Authored by: OrlandoNative on Friday, November 14 2008 @ 05:02 PM EST
...those Unix System V fixes were for legacy customers.

Remember, there were folks who licensed only Unix (and not Unixware) from
Novell; but since SCO was the administrator of those licenses as well as any new
unixware ones, they would have to put up fixes for both in their management
role.

Of course, this doesn't mean they couldn't have been lying through their teeth
when they said they didn't sell Unix licenses seperately...

[ Reply to This | # ]

Norris Did Attend SCO's Tec Forum; Investors "Excited" About Prospects
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 17 2008 @ 06:02 PM EST
Geez, I didn't have time to read the article, but I just wanted to ask is there
anything Chuck Norris <b>can't</b> do?

[ Reply to This | # ]

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