By Cedric Braun
An introductory video designed to look like a 1920s newsreel touting the wonders of Unix technology greeted and amused the Friday morning audience at the final keynote address of UniForum '96. The video took some lighthearted jabs at the recent transfer of UnixWare and the Unix source code from Novell to the Santa Cruz Operation's headquarters in Santa Cruz, CA, thus serving to introduce the company's president and CEO, Alok Mohan.
Mohan's topic was "Unix: Still the Best Business-Critical Server," and he began by pointing out that Unix is pervasive in both business and society today. He reminded attendees of its ubiquity by showing how practically every move one makes in the course of a day--from using computer networks to making phone calls to ordering a Big Mac--is supported by systems running Unix. This pervasiveness, he argued, has occurred because Unix is the best platform for innovation, due to its modularity and hardware independence. At the same time, Unix supports tens of thousands of business applications and remains the dominant platform for commercial databases, wide-area networks and the Internet; it also supports over 50 percent of all midrange units now being shipped, he claimed.
Presenting what he referred to as a multivendor "Unix Industry Model," Mohan explained that progress is based on competition, innovation, research and development, and best-of-breed technology. He said that those characteristics make the model superior to the single-vendor model, because no one vendor can possibly achieve the lead in all areas for any significant period of time.
Mohan made a few digs at a certain software company based in the Pacific Northwest. He suggested that the PC model touted by Microsoft is itself out of date. "Content must reside on the network," he insisted. In Mohan's view, the concept of "information at your fingertips," a Microsoft slogan, has outgrown the desktop.
Mohan also predicted that consolidation in the number of Unix platforms will be necessary to increase the rate of innovation, though he was careful to insist that consolidation does not amount to the creation of a single Unix. Mohan also proposed a new Unix Industry Model, with fewer Unix platforms; more technology sources; a "level playing field"; and independent software vendors, relieved of porting to many platforms, adding value at high levels.
In discussion afterward, Mohan admitted that the top tier of Unix vendors, including Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems, are not likely to consolidate their Unix implementations. He said that SCO is in negotiations with other Unix suppliers and promised announcements in this vein within a few months.
Speaking about the importance of partnering, Mohan stressed that industry partnerships ultimately lead to consolidation. He mentioned SCO's teaming with Hewlett-Packard to work on a next-generation Unix system technology stream, which was announced Wednesday at UniForum '96. He added that his company expects to take part in further partnering in the near future. He ended with the prediction that a consolidated Unix presence will form the foundation for continued growth in the Internet and other areas of information technology critical to business users.