SCO to bundle Linux licence with Unix line

The SCO Group is looking to bundle its controversial Linux licences with its Unix products.

SCO claims that Linux users need to buy the licences because Linux contains some of its intellectual property, placed there without consent.

Chris Sontag, senior vice president and general manager of the SCOsource division, said that the company is working on providing an SCO Linux licence bundled with its OpenServer and UnixWare operating systems.

"If you chose to run a Linux application, and you [had] a licence for the most recent version of UnixWare, then you can do that," he said at the SCO Forum event in Las Vegas.

He admitted that only 20 to 30 organisations have now bought an SCO Linux licence since it was launched.

Sontag blamed action by Novell, which has claimed ownership of the Unix copyrights, for slowing down licence sales. "Some people have used that as an excuse to wait," he said.

Sontag claimed that licence sales are slowly increasing, but "not as fast as I would like".

"[There are] some significant licences signed this quarter; we have some good momentum on licences despite the Novell issue," he said.

Sontag also provided details of the next steps the company is taking in its ongoing legal battles.

In the slander of title case, Novell is due to respond to SCO's complaint by 6 August, which Sontag said will be followed by the discovery process.

And the next step in the case against IBM will come at a hearing on 15 September when District Court Judge Dale Kimball will hear IBM's motion for partial summary judgement as well as SCO's motion to dismiss IBM's Linux related copyright counterclaim.