UTG Adjusts to Future Without Novell

Unveils Plans with HP, SCO

The UnixWare Technology Group (UTG), the trade association devoted to the advancement of UnixWare, has every right to feel if not imperiled, then definitely shaken up these days. The recent transfer of the UnixWare kernel from Novell to the Santa Cruz Operation has sent shock waves through the open systems industry. The same holds true for the plans by Hewlett-Packard and Intel to develop new 64-bit Unix standards. However, Larry Lytle, UTG president and CEO, asserts that the new business alliances will have a positive effect on the future of UTG.

"Actually, it's better this way," Lytle says. "A frustration was felt because Novell was torn between its traditional technologies and UnixWare. Novell was really unable to do all the things to make UnixWare successful."

The changes for UnixWare will require UTG to readjust and expand its position in the industry. Novell's place as a sponsoring member will be assumed by SCO upon completion of the UnixWare transfer, now slated for Dec. 1, 1995. The challenge for UTG will be to develop the same strong relationship with SCO that it enjoyed with Novell. At the same time, UTG needs to maintain bonds with current members such as HP while continuing to play a central role in UnixWare development.

So far, the new business alliances for UnixWare make sense to UTG and everyone else concerned. Lytle says, "SCO and HP make their living from Unix, so they are the logical ones to lead the development on the Intel side, on the 64-bit side, and with other architectures like Sparc or Mips." At a meeting on Oct. 4 at Santa Cruz, representatives of HP, SCO, and Novell met with UTG sponsor members to discuss future plans and reassure them that the transition would be a smooth one.

Biff Traber, director of product marketing at Novell, declared to UTG members that his company will contribute networking technologies to SCO and HP. He added that Novell and HP will also work together for high-performance NetWare services on HP-UX and Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) integration on NetWare Directory Service (NDS).

At the same meeting, Buzz Walker, marketing program manager at HP, stressed the importance of UTG's work, declaring, "None of us can afford by ourselves to be in the operating system business anymore."

Several participants admitted to problems in industry relationships. In comments made at a later date, Scott McGregor, SCO senior VP of products, conceded that "there used to be a rift in the industry between SCO and UnixWare customers. Now we can all work to the same ends."

Lytle predicts that UTG's new role in the industry will be much larger than with Novell. "Our chunk of the universe just got a lot bigger," he says. UTG will focus on several new areas, including the merger of UnixWare and OpenServer 5. UTG will provide feedback from vendors as to the best way to do that. At the same time, UTG will be helping HP with the development of 64-bit standards. UTG has not been involved in detailed 64-bit projects before, although it supported workgroups dealing with issues such as 64-bit on 32-bit file systems.

Lytle also believes UTG's membership list will grow, especially in the direction of SCO application developers and perhaps resellers. UTG has recently established a new general membership class primarily for smaller ISVs and other organizations. General members don't have direct representation on UTG's board of directors or prerelease access to UnixWare code. However, they can participate in select UTG activities, and they have priority access to UnixWare technical information.

In all, Lytle feels that the UnixWare transfer "was the best thing that could have happened to Unix." In fact, he only has one regret: that Unix "lost two years before this happened."