[log in to unmask] writes:
> [...]Project Monterey, a single source-tree 64-bit UNIX initiative, that
> does not look like it will be open source, and will in some sense be
> a 'proprietary' offering from IBM, Intel, SCO, Sequent, Acer, Bull,
> Fujitsu, and Unisys (and perhaps others).

Am I the only one who remembers essentially this exact same announcement
a few years ago, only then the players were SCO and HP rather than SCO
and IBM?  HP announced that they and SCO were going to develop this grand
new UNIX implementation that was going to replace (but allegedly be
compatible with) HP-UX, and which would run on all these dozens of
platforms.

For a while it sounded as though HP wanted out of the operating system
business entirely.  There was talk of SCO doing all the development
work on the new OS, and many of the HP engineers moving over to SCO.

Then a year or so later, all of this had vanished and HP was back
driving hard with HP-UX.  No mention of what had happened to the big
SCO partnership.

Now about six months ago we get almost *exactly* the same press release,
but this time SCO has talked IBM into it instead of HP.

Seems like all the second- and third-tier UNIX suppliers don't think
they are going to be able to afford to maintain their own UNIX, and so
are jumping on the bandwagon of a group that promises to provide a UNIX
that's better than what they could each produce on their own, plus the
(so far) elusive benefit of "standardization", while maintaining the
ability to control (i.e. charge money for) a proprietary product.

I predict that "Monterey" will have a very hard time competing with
Linux, at least on hardware platforms where there is an active Linux
community.  Monterey will be just another operating system possibility,
with little to recommend it over Linux, or each individual vendor's
previous UNIX offering.  Since moving from the vendor's old UNIX to
Monterey will almost certainly require a nontrivial migration, it's
likely that many people will take the opportunity to move to Linux, or
NT, or some entirely different platform, rather than go the way that
the vendor hopes.

For the immediate future, having a strong proprietary UNIX that is
highly optimized for your hardware and which is fully supported (like
HP-UX) seems to me to be the winning option (at least until Linux
becomes more professional).  HP started down the SCO road and apparently
changed their minds.  The interesting question is why is IBM going along
with it now?

G.