Just because a company is under bankruptcy protection and is trying to sell
off its assets doesn’t mean it’s out of business.
Embattled Unix vendor SCO is rolling out a maintenance pack update this week
for its OpenServer 6 Unix server. The maintenance pack is the third such
update to OpenServer 6 since SCO released the operating system in 2005.
Among the new enhancements that SCO is shipping with the Maintenance pack 3
for OpenServer 6 is an improved Xenix emulation mode. Xenix is an older
version of Unix that actually originated with Microsoft back in 1980. With
the new emulator applications that could run on the older OpenServer 5 will
now run on OpenServer version 6.
SCO has also updated a number of key open source applications that ship with
OpenServer, including the Windows file-sharing tool Samba 3.0.20, PHP 5.2.3, OpenSSH 4.6p1, and the desktop KDE 3.5.6 GUI.
“This significant development incorporates many customer-requested
enhancements that make this a very powerful OpenServer update,” Sandy Gupta,
president of SCO operations, said in a statement.
“Feedback during the beta
process indicated that a number of solution providers will now be able to
certify their OpenServer 5 applications on OpenServer 6, making it a smooth
upgrade path for a large number of our customers running older releases.”
SCO did not return repeated requests for comment. But the company has been busy lately.
The Unix vendor is struggling for its survival after going into bankruptcy protection in mid-September. In its defense SCO is trying to raise
funds by selling off its Unix business for as much as $36 million.
SCO is also contending with multiple NASDAQ de-listing warnings. On Nov. 8, SCO will find out for sure whether or not the de-listing will occur.