Grant Gross
Senior Writer

Update: SCO releases Linux for Itanium

news
Apr 16, 20032 mins

OS based on UnitedLinux

The SCO Group has released a Linux server operating system for the 64-bit Intel Itanium processor, the company announced Tuesday.

SCO Linux Server 4.0 for the Itanium Processor Family is based on UnitedLinux 1.0, the Linux operating system being marketed by a coalition of four Linux companies, in an effort to promote Linux interoperability and compete with U.S. market Linux leader Red Hat. The new product will have the “broadest interoperability” with other UnitedLinux products, according to an SCO press release.

The $999 price tag for the server operating system includes a license for installation on up to four CPUs and a year-long subscription to the SCO Linux Update Service. Other support programs are available, and the server is currently available from SCO resellers.

SCO hopes to ink deals with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) such as Hewlett-Packard and Unisys, said Porter Olsen, product manager for SCO Linux. Itanium is a significantly smaller market than Linux on x86, 32-bit systems, he said, but SCO hopes deals with those OEMs will drive interest in the new SCO Itanium server.

“We see it mainly as an OEM market,” he added. “We’re working with our OEM partners to make it clearly available with those deliveries.”

The SCO Linux Server 4.0 for the Itanium Processor Family supports Itanium 2 systems, features the Linux 2.4.19 kernel, and has “sophisticated and flexible” clustering features, according to an SCO press release.

The new server OS “was developed with the enterprise user in mind, meeting the highest standards of reliability, availability, stability and security,” said OpinderBawa, senior vice president of SCO’s engineering and global services, in the press release. The product “delivers the performance that system administrators want, while its foundation in UnitedLinux guarantees world-class application development, certification and deployment,” he added.

Grant Gross

Grant Gross, a senior writer at CIO, is a long-time IT journalist who has focused on AI, enterprise technology, and tech policy. He previously served as Washington, D.C., correspondent and later senior editor at IDG News Service. Earlier in his career, he was managing editor at Linux.com and news editor at tech careers site Techies.com. As a tech policy expert, he has appeared on C-SPAN and the giant NTN24 Spanish-language cable news network. In the distant past, he worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. A finalist for Best Range of Work by a Single Author for both the Eddie Awards and the Neal Awards, Grant was recently recognized with an ASBPE Regional Silver award for his article “Agentic AI: Decisive, operational AI arrives in business.”

More from this author