SCO Skunkware


SCO Skunkware, often referred to as simply "Skunkware", is a collection of open-source software projects ported, compiled, and packaged for free redistribution on Santa Cruz Operation operating environments. SCO Skunkware packaged components exist for SCO Xenix, SCO UNIX, OpenServer 5–6, UnixWare 2 and 7, Caldera OpenLinux, and Open UNIX 8. SCO Skunkware was an early pioneering effort to bring open source software into the realm of business computing and, as such, provided an important initial impetus to the acceptance and adoption of open source software in the small and medium-sized business market. An extensive SCO Skunkware download area has been maintained since 1993 and SCO Skunkware components were shipped with operating system distributions as far back as 1983, when Xenix for the IBM XT was released by The Santa Cruz Operation. The annual SCO Forum conference was a venue for the makers and users of SCO Skunkware to meet and discuss its contents and ideas for future additions.
Later additional open source distributions for operating platforms such as the FreeBSD Ports collection and the Solaris Freeware repository would lend added momentum to the adoption of open source in the business community.
WWW Official Site

Release history

SCO Skunkware has been released often on CD-ROM and as a downloadable CD ISO image. Individual packages are distributed via FTP. The Skunkware CD release history is:
  • 1983 – First SCO Xenix Games Diskette
  • 1993 – Skunkware
  • 1994 – Skunkware 2.0
  • 1995 – Skunkware 5
  • 1996 – Skunkware 96
  • 1997 – Skunkware 97
  • 1998 – Skunkware 7
  • 1998 – Skunkware 98
  • 1999 – Skunkware 7.1
  • 1999 – Skunkware 99
  • 2000 – Skunkware 2000
  • 2000 – Skunkware 7.1.1
  • 2001 – Skunkware 8.0.0
  • 2001 – SOSS 3.1
  • 2002 – Skunkware 8.0.1
  • 2002 – SOSS 3.1.1
  • 2006 – Skunkware 2006

Licensing

SCO Skunkware components are licensed under a variety of terms. Most components are licensed under an Open Source Initiative approved open-source license. Many are licensed under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the GNU Library General Public License.
Licenses used by SCO Skunkware components include or are similar to:
A few of the components are "freeware" with no restrictions on their redistribution. Some components may restrict their use to non-commercial purposes or require a license fee for commercial use. Some components may be redistributed with special permission from the author as is the case with KISDN.

Packaging formats

SCO Skunkware packages are typically distributed in the native packaging format of the operating system release for which they are intended. Package management systems used by SCO Skunkware include the following:
  • Old SCO Custom installable floppy images
  • New Custom SSO architecture media images
  • SysV pkgadd datastreams
  • RPM
  • Compressed tar and cpio archives