On page 5 and 6, I found references to a couple of things that I believe shoot some new holes in SCO's position on confidentiality too. Poor SCO. They're like a second wife who doesn't know a thing about her husband compared to the first wife. SCO took the name, but it doesn't know the Santa Cruz history. Neither did I, but at least I'm trying.

You'll never guess what oldSCO did in 1999. So I'll tell you, with links and graphics to prove I'm not making it up. On May 28, 1999, Santa Cruz announced that it was giving away UnixWare7 free for personal, noncommercial use. Oh, and the world could use it for open source development.

Hahahahaha. I guess oldSCO wasn't planning on suing IBM in 2003 (through all eternity) over methods and concepts, huh?

NewSCO has scrubbed as much of that old history as it can from the Internet (which tells us that it likely does actually know more than it lets on), but they can't control all of the Internet, so here's a message on an Irish LUG's board:

[ILUG] Free UnixWare 7
From: Dave Burke (dave at domain iol.ie)
Date: Fri 28 May 1999 - 15:47:31 IST

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Heyho,

http://www.sco.com/seti/freeuw7.html

SCO are giving away UnixWare 7 for free and have waived the P&P charges as well as part of their SETI promotion. Don't know if they'll post it to Ireland but haven't have a response back yet saying that they wouldn't.

Dave

This was followed by a followup message, which said the following, in part:

Well, yeah, but who cares?

I (like, I suspect, a few others here), started my Unix experience on SCO, and rarely have I been so relieved to put something behind me. Going from Linux or Solaris to SCO Unixware is like going from a Rolls to a Morris Minor - lots of things are missing, or in the wrong place, or don't work right, or whatever... it always takes lots of horrid little tweaks to get stuff to compile properly on it. All in all, yecchh.

That's a new take on the bicycle/race car analogy, huh? Would you like to see the license? Here you go, with a little highlighting from me, because I'm in such a good mood:

Free-for-noncommercial-use-ware: SCO: OpenServer und Free UnixWare

"Conditions Of Use

USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IS SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL USE TO ENABLE THE EVALUATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF SCO PRODUCTS, AND ONLY FOR: (1) NONCOMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES, OR (2)NONCOMMERCIAL PERSONAL HOME USE (SUCH AS PERSONAL WEBSITE AND BBS), OR (3) EVALUATION PURPOSES LIMITED TO 60 DAYS, OR (4) DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES FOR PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS. SCO GRANTS TO YOU A NON-EXCLUSIVE, NON-TRANSFERABLE, ROYALTY FREE, LIMITED LICENSE TO USE THE SOFTWARE ONLY FOR THOSE PURPOSES STATED ABOVE, AND NOT FOR ANY OTHER USE. YOU WILL NOT ACQUIRE ANY RIGHT IN THE SOFTWARE EXCEPT THE LIMITED USE RIGHTS SPECIFIED IN THE SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT WHICH YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ AND AGREE TO PRIOR TO USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. THE LICENSED SOFTWARE MAY NOT BE SOLD, LEASED, ASSIGNED, SUBLICENSED OR OTHERWISE TRANSFERRED, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, BY YOU.

http://wdb1.sco.com/clbk_web/owa/freeunix_reg_action

Q: What do you mean free? This media kit costs money!
A: Well, it's the license that is free. We only charge the amount necessary to cover our costs for the actual media.

Q: What can I do with this free license and media kit?
A: You can use it for learning about UNIX� systems, developing software that you do not sell, personal computing, or to run a personal web site. It can also be used for open source development and speculative development (Product development done before a product is shipped).You may not use it in your business or to support commercial or profit-making activities....

Q: Why is SCO doing this?
A: As the owner of UNIX technology, SCO wanted to address the many requests from students, school faculties, hobbyists and business users who want to experiment with SCO software. With the availability of free and low cost Linux systems, we feel it is very important to make sure that SCO UNIX offerings are available for evaluation at a low cost.

SCO Offers FAQ http://www.sco.com/offers/faq.html"

I believe that red part is clear enough. It. Can. Also. Be. Used. For. Open. Source. Development. OldSCO actively promoted the use of Unix in education, though its "Academic Program." Ever hear about oldSCO's FreeUnix Korea program? And just in case you think some guy made this up and there never was a Free UnixWare7 release, I give you SCO's own website, which tells us this:

Release 7.1.1 Software notes

Installation Roadmap...

Gathering required media and licenses

The minimal media required to install UnixWare 7 include:

* UnixWare 7 Installation Diskettes (2)

* UnixWare 7 Host Bus Adapter Diskette

* UnixWare 7 CD-ROMs 1-3, unless installing over the network

* License information, from a printed Certificate of License and Authenticity or from your vendor's licensing web site. This license is optional if you want to install a system for a limited evaluation period. ...

What to do after installing UnixWare 7....

Common post-installation tasks include:

* Creating emergency recovery diskettes and tapes. Note that you must set the system locale to C to successfully create this media.

* Registering the system. (Free UnixWare 7 does not need to be registered.)

A company wishing to sue the world over methods and concepts, whatever that means in legal terms, probably shouldn't let people evaluate their software without an NDA for 60 days or give away to any Tom, Dick and Harry an entire version for educational use and open source development. N'est-ce pas?

So, here are the graphics from the manual, so you'll see that there really was a Free Unixware7 giveaway and evaluation licenses. The final graphic is regarding the Academic Program and the FreeUnix Korea project, which comes from my collection of screenshots I took before SCO whitewashed its website and blocked Wayback: