Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Caldera to Open Part of UNIX Source

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the taking-their-own-sweet-time dept.

Andy Tai writes: "According to this Caldera press release, Caldera is beginning to release the components of the original Unix source code under the GPL or other licenses (such as Caldera's Open Access license). While some of these Unix utilities (grep and awk) may not be very useful, since GNU equivalents have been available for many years, the original Unix tools going GPL has a big symbolic meaning--the original Unix is gradually becoming Free Software! Unix was the giant RMS aimed to replace. Now GNU is gradually taking the place of the original Unix."

3 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Not really interesting any more. by Ami+Ganguli · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This would have been great ten years ago, but today the original "awk", "grep", etc are worthless. Even when I started with Unix ~1990 the first thing I did when I got a new Sun box was install the GNU tools. Even then the commercial versions were generally inferior.

    If I were the cynical type (who me?) I'd say that Caldera has realised that everybody prefers the GNU utilities, and that their proprietary versions have no commercial value. They figure they might as well score some PR points by releasing the code.

    Contrast this with IBM, which has ported and Freed it's JFS - a modern file system that represents an import feature (and selling point) of AIX. So when will Caldera release SCO's clustering code? Probably ten year's after Linux clustering is mature.

    --
    It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
  2. Re:GNU isn't replacing Unix by lupercalia · · Score: 4, Informative

    Er, read the article. The source is not just being open sourced, but GPLed. So it *is* becoming Free Software.

    It doesn't have to be official GNU software to be Free; it only has to be under a Free license.

    And don't think for a moment that this would have happened without both the GNU project and the Linux kernel -- dare I say GNU/Linux? The GNU utilities have gotten better than most of their proprietary equivalents, and Linux is quickly getting better than the proprietary Unices. That's why the vendors are slowly giving way to the unstoppable Linux. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

  3. Name it right... by |guillaume| · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unix was the giant RMS aimed to replace. Now GNU is gradually taking the place of the original Unix."
    So from now on I guess we will have to call it GNU/Unix.

    --

    give me all your garmonbozia