At Mon Jan 16 06:36:47 PST 2006 or so...

My archive of www.darlmcbride.com

What's the big deal, anyway?

The big deal is this:

• although we don't really know to what use TSCOG's modified Unix timelines would have ultimately been put, it is irrefutable that TSCOG has used their modified (and incorrect) Unix timelines repeatedly on the public relations front to try to establish in the press's and the public's mind the idea that there is a direct, linear ancestry to Linux from some Unix variant that TSCOG holds some title to.
• the fact that in the clearest TSCOG variant of Levenez' Unix timeline, TSCOG makes a very obvious error (whether intentional or un- we'll never know) which suggests that:
  • either they had someone modifying Levenez' Unix timeline who didn't understand what they were seeing, and thus didn't know what they were doing; or
  • they were consciously engaging in an out-and-out lie, and just hoped/assumed that they wouldn't get caught

Whatever the case, TSCOG clearly made a "mistake" in their understanding of what Eric Levenez' Unix timeline meant, and why it was laid out the way it was.

And they went on to imply a direct (but false) lineage between Xenix, Minix, and Linux.

Here it is, in pictures.

AFAIK, there have been three renditions of TSCOG's modified Unix® timeline, based upon the original by Eric Levenez.

1. The web version, formerly at http://www.sco.com/scosource/unixtree/unixhistory01.html (this link should generate a 404 Not Found), and found to have been replaced in its refering link at http://www.sco.com/scosource/ -- "UNIX System Development Timeline" -- by a reference to Eric Levenez' Unix timeline, some time between June 19, 2004 and July 25, 2004.

   Here is a copy of that web page, which I preserved on June 19, 2004.

   There is/was still an archived copy at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sco.com/scosource/ as of July 27, 2004, see here, for example, and take the link "UNIX System Development Timeline" -- although web.archive.org's copies have some unimportant gaps in them.

   And, at least at July 27, 2004, [and continuing at July 26, 2005] there is still a copy (shhh!!) online at http://www.caldera.com/darlmcbride/unixtree/unixhistory01.html, which, as you can see, is within the Caldera domain namespace. It's interesting to note that this version has a different legend, one refering to "SCO Linux Heritage" rather than just plain "Linux". Perhaps this version was created before TSCOG decided to pretend that it had never been associated with Linux in any way :-/

   Finally, a variant (in vertical format :-/ ) by Charles Puffer is found at Groklaw.net. This was apparently an abortive start to redo the Levenez Unix timeline, a project that was probably replaced by the Grokline Project.

   ---

2. An SCO Source Powerpoint presentation, on slide 4. (Incidentally, OpenOffice.org Writer 1.0.2 does a splendid job of displaying M$ Powerpoint presentations). I'm guessing this originates in the summer of 2003; I pulled down my copy around June 24, 2004.

   Here is the entire SCO Source Powerpoint presentation if you want to download it;

   Here is a *.png of slide number 4.

   ---

3. In the photographs from SCO Forum 2003, where Darl and his assistant hold up a long, taped-together printout of the SCO Source Unix® timeline.

   Here are my local copies of the SCO Forum 2003 photos:

   • a reduced size copy of the overall photo, with Darl
   • a full size crop into the most pertinent area

So, again, we don't really know to what use TSCOG planned to put all this, ultimately.

We do know that they have presented, in at least three different ways, a Unix timeline that was flawed (being generous) or deliberately falsified (being more realistic :-/ ).

And, most interesting, we know for a fact that some time after June 19, 2004, TSCOG has begun to remove all traces of its "Unix timeline" from its web site.

What does that tell you?