7 ms·

Hmm. I joined SCO in early 1991, and one of my first jobs in techpubs was working on documenting compatability between SCO-branded Xenix and SCO's release of SV

by cstross 13y ago

Hmm. I joined SCO in early 1991, and one of my first jobs in techpubs was working on documenting compatability between SCO-branded Xenix and SCO's release of SVR3.2 UNIX -- which was able to run binaries compiled for SCO Xenix (unsurprisingly) but offered a bunch of extras. AIUI SCO had been doing a lot of development of Xenix from 1986/87 onwards, when Microsoft made the strategic decision to focus on OS/2 and the successor to DOS. Taking on Xenix was what enabled SCO to grow to a $200M/year turnover multinational in about 5 years; and failing to understand the implications of Linux was probably what killed SCO (or rather, when they finally got it, they split the company and sold the UNIX IP to Caldera, who renamed themselves SCO and attempted to sue the universe) -- the rest is history.

chollida1 13y ago
> Hmm. I joined SCO in early 1991 Meta question, and I'll try to ask it delicately:) I know that you worked for SCO along time ago and its a different company than the one who started the lawsuit, but have you every had anyone refuse to hire you, or even joke about it, because you worked at SCO/had the name SCO on your resume? With the SCO lawsuit a few years back there was an awful lot of vitriol from some people about how they'd never hire someone with SCO on their resume. I'd be curious to know if anyone ever did get black listed due to working at SCO/Caldera.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jfischer 13y ago
  Ha! Charlie left the software industry and moved to bigger and better things (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/faq.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/faq.html). He does have some good stories about his days at SCO on his website (e.g. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/06/how_i_got_here_in_the_end_part_3.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/06/how_i_go...).
- kjs3 13y ago
  The company I started out at wrote the (infamous) C2 subsystem for SCO Unix. Every once in a great while, some elderly neckbeard will give me shit about that. Memories...
- rogerbinns 13y ago
  The cut off seemed to be more about people who stayed after the lawsuits started, rather than anyone who had ever worked there. That is a significantly smaller number of people. I haven't heard of any people having problems. These days the reaction I get on mentioning SCO is "who?".
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  cstross has commented that as a result of The SCO Group's actions, he considers the association in his resume to be a liability. Lessee ... here we are: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/01/i_get_mail.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/01/i_get_ma... (Which reminds me: according to a legal friend of mine, here in the UK it's actually a civil offense for a corporation to bring its name into such disrepute that it damages former employees' prospects. This harks back to the BCCI collapse in the early 90s, but suggests that if I was still in the software biz I might actually have a case in law against post-takeover SCO for shitting all over my resumé. But I digress ...) (Yes, the whole bit is a parenthetical.) I've only somewhat recently discovered Stross's fiction and blog, I recommend both strongly.
- cstross 13y ago
  Interesting question, that ... I was out of the industry by 2002 (do not ask me about what it was like to be part of a team making our first pitch for VC seed investments on September 12th, 2001 ...). But I am informed by a barrister of my acquaintance (over a pint) that because of a very interesting precedent set in English employment law following the collapse of BCCI in 1992, if SCO were still in business in the UK, and I was still in the field and had difficulty getting work because of the aforementioned vitriol, I could sue them for damages to my reputation and have a good chance of collecting. (The Bank of Credit and Commerce International, BCCI, collapsed in an epic scandal of corruption, fraud, and money laundering: innocent former employees of BCCI subsequently sued the liquidators and received damages in compensation for the trauma and injury to their reputation, which in many cases rendered them unemployable in their industry thereafter. More on BCCI here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_In... )
rogerbinns 13y ago
I also worked for SCO (part of IXI in Cambridge) and think I even met you once :-) The name SCO was very deliberate - the folks in Santa Cruz were a different company but when dealing with Microsoft people in Redmond wanted to seem like part of Microsoft. Consequently "Santa Cruz Organization" made it sound like they were a branch office rather than outsiders. Many don't know what made SCO successful. Imagine you were a dentist. A local VAR would package up a system for you, such as a Compaq server, tape drive (for backup), terminals, SCO Unix, appointment and finance software and install it. SCO Unix tried really hard to be easy to use, ranging from the documentation to the software. (Remember it is a dental employee running backups not an IT specialist). The VAR made their money via a ~15% markup. There wasn't really much competition for small business systems at the time. Trivia: it used to be that the only software for managing a pet cemetery ran on SCO. Caldera wanted SCO for access to that network of 15,000 VARs. The VARs were used to their markup on a $1k or more copy of SCO Unix, but it isn't as attractive as 15% of a $29.95 copy of Caldera Linux. Caldera would have been able to sell for more, but then the VARs would be questioning why they needed Caldera. In the end it all failed, largely because Caldera wasn't needed. The irony is Clayton Christensen (of The Innovator's Dilemma) even spoke at the SCO annual event (SCO Forum) in 1999. SCO at the time was focussing more and more on "the enterprise" where Linux couldn't possibly be relevant :-) https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/51414/sco_forum_technology_disrupts_old_order/ https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/51414/sco_forum_tec...

by cstross 13y ago

chollida1 13y ago

> Hmm. I joined SCO in early 1991 Meta question, and I'll try to ask it delicately:) I know that you worked for SCO along time ago and its a different company than the one who started the lawsuit, but have you every had anyone refuse to hire you, or even joke about it, because you worked at SCO/had the name SCO on your resume? With the SCO lawsuit a few years back there was an awful lot of vitriol from some people about how they'd never hire someone with SCO on their resume. I'd be curious to know if anyone ever did get black listed due to working at SCO/Caldera.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jfischer 13y ago
Ha! Charlie left the software industry and moved to bigger and better things (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/faq.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/faq.html). He does have some good stories about his days at SCO on his website (e.g. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/06/how_i_got_here_in_the_end_part_3.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/06/how_i_go...).
kjs3 13y ago
The company I started out at wrote the (infamous) C2 subsystem for SCO Unix. Every once in a great while, some elderly neckbeard will give me shit about that. Memories...
rogerbinns 13y ago
The cut off seemed to be more about people who stayed after the lawsuits started, rather than anyone who had ever worked there. That is a significantly smaller number of people. I haven't heard of any people having problems. These days the reaction I get on mentioning SCO is "who?".
dredmorbius 13y ago
cstross has commented that as a result of The SCO Group's actions, he considers the association in his resume to be a liability. Lessee ... here we are: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/01/i_get_mail.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/01/i_get_ma... (Which reminds me: according to a legal friend of mine, here in the UK it's actually a civil offense for a corporation to bring its name into such disrepute that it damages former employees' prospects. This harks back to the BCCI collapse in the early 90s, but suggests that if I was still in the software biz I might actually have a case in law against post-takeover SCO for shitting all over my resumé. But I digress ...) (Yes, the whole bit is a parenthetical.) I've only somewhat recently discovered Stross's fiction and blog, I recommend both strongly.
cstross 13y ago
Interesting question, that ... I was out of the industry by 2002 (do not ask me about what it was like to be part of a team making our first pitch for VC seed investments on September 12th, 2001 ...). But I am informed by a barrister of my acquaintance (over a pint) that because of a very interesting precedent set in English employment law following the collapse of BCCI in 1992, if SCO were still in business in the UK, and I was still in the field and had difficulty getting work because of the aforementioned vitriol, I could sue them for damages to my reputation and have a good chance of collecting. (The Bank of Credit and Commerce International, BCCI, collapsed in an epic scandal of corruption, fraud, and money laundering: innocent former employees of BCCI subsequently sued the liquidators and received damages in compensation for the trauma and injury to their reputation, which in many cases rendered them unemployable in their industry thereafter. More on BCCI here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_In... )

rogerbinns 13y ago

I also worked for SCO (part of IXI in Cambridge) and think I even met you once :-) The name SCO was very deliberate - the folks in Santa Cruz were a different company but when dealing with Microsoft people in Redmond wanted to seem like part of Microsoft. Consequently "Santa Cruz Organization" made it sound like they were a branch office rather than outsiders. Many don't know what made SCO successful. Imagine you were a dentist. A local VAR would package up a system for you, such as a Compaq server, tape drive (for backup), terminals, SCO Unix, appointment and finance software and install it. SCO Unix tried really hard to be easy to use, ranging from the documentation to the software. (Remember it is a dental employee running backups not an IT specialist). The VAR made their money via a ~15% markup. There wasn't really much competition for small business systems at the time. Trivia: it used to be that the only software for managing a pet cemetery ran on SCO. Caldera wanted SCO for access to that network of 15,000 VARs. The VARs were used to their markup on a $1k or more copy of SCO Unix, but it isn't as attractive as 15% of a $29.95 copy of Caldera Linux. Caldera would have been able to sell for more, but then the VARs would be questioning why they needed Caldera. In the end it all failed, largely because Caldera wasn't needed. The irony is Clayton Christensen (of The Innovator's Dilemma) even spoke at the SCO annual event (SCO Forum) in 1999. SCO at the time was focussing more and more on "the enterprise" where Linux couldn't possibly be relevant :-) https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/51414/sco_forum_technology_disrupts_old_order/ https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/51414/sco_forum_tec...