SCO Readies New OpenServer Unix

LAS VEGAS— On Monday, The SCO Group Inc. will announce the release of the developer preview of Legend, the next major release of its flagship Unix operating system, SCO OpenServer, at is annual partner show, SCO Forum.

This new version of SCO’s OpenServer goes into beta in September. SCO hopes to release it to distribution in January 2005.

The latest OpenServer will bring in features from SCO’s other Unix operating system, UnixWare. These will include performance improvements, symmetric multi-processing (SMP) and load balancing. “The Legend Developer Preview already demonstrates performance increases in several areas including a 100 percent improvement in file system speed,” according to Sandy Gupta, SCO’s new VP of Engineering.

In addition to fundamental performance improvements, Legend will come with new Java server functionality and include the open-source PostgreSQL and MySQL relational database management systems. SCO will also be incorporating its SCOx Web Services substrate to help developers build XML-based Web services to the OpenServer platform.

The new release also includes security features to make it attractive to security conscious customers. These will include an encrypted file system and virtual private network (VPN) support.

At the same time, SCO announced new developer programs designed to encourage developers to build applications for both the current OpenServer platform and Legend, and to encourage legacy OpenServer ISVs (independent software vendors) to port their programs to Legend.

As Gupta noted, “It’s extremely important that we continue to have a solid developer program around our operating system products.”

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