Microsoft licenses Unix from SCO

NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp has said that it will license the rights to the Unix computer operating system from SCO Group, in a deal that could apply pressure on other firms to follow suit and enter licensing deals. Microsoft has also increasingly dubbed Linux as a growing threat.

In a statement, Microsoft said the Unix license was intended to ensure that the software maker did not violate any intellectual property rights when developing products that allow computers with differing operating systems to work in tandem with one another.

"This helps to ensure IP compliance across Microsoft solutions and supports our efforts around existing products like Services for Unix that further Unix interoperability," Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel and senior vice president, said in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal reported that SCO will license the technology and core computer code of Unix.

Unix, developed in the 1960s by AT&T Corp., and its popular and freely-distributed derivative, Linux, are competitors to the Microsoft's Windows operating systems.

SCO has called Linux "an unauthorized derivative" of Unix and has said commercial users who do not license Unix intellectual property may be subject to legal penalty.

Terms of the deal with Microsoft were not released, the Journal reported. However, SCO said it has entered into a license pact with another major technology company, which it would not name.

A representative of SCO Group, which was formerly known as Caldera Systems Inc., could not immediately be reached for comment.

© Reuters with CIOL Bureau inputs