Santa Cruz Operation Inc called us to comment on Compaq Computer Corp’s deal to use Citrix Systems Inc’s Integrated Computer Architecture (ICA) thin client in a range of Windows devices, initially the CE-based Aero 8000 handheld computer (CI No 3,713). SCO’s VP of new ventures, Ray Anderson, while describing the partnership as no big deal said that Compaq is buying into an outmoded approach to thin clients, compared to SCO’s Tarantella software. [Citrix] license a closed protocol to lots of people to try and get them to embed it on their devices, Anderson said. Tarantella doesn’t need such a hare-brained scheme because we support any devices. Either by downloading Java automatically, or, like we’ve done with Wyse, we provide them with the source code, almost an open source. Tarantella already works with all of Compaq’s devices, Anderson claimed. He said that the upcoming SCO Forum in August would see major announcements regarding Compaq and the open source community.
However, Paula Hunter, director of solutions marketing for emerging markets and programs at Compaq, said that the Citrix deal was Windows and NT focused and Compaq usually worked with SCO on Unix issues. We have not been partnering with them on Tarantella over the past few years, she said, but rather working at the operating systems level. And industry players, such as GraphOn Corp, also take issue with SCO’s claims that the Citrix method is a proprietary one. We’re just glad to see Compaq acknowledge the importance of server-based computing, said Dean Prelazzi, director of marketing at GraphOn. Citrix he said was leading the pack, everybody’s chasing them. And he questioned SCO’s claims, saying that it depended on the definition of proprietary. I don’t see it as locking anyone in, he said of the ICA client.
