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SCO Change Their Name to Tarantella 132

Posted by CmdrTaco from the you-gotta-be-kidding dept.
GoodPint sent in a story so bizarre that you'll swear I made it up because nothing interesting is happening 'cuz its august and everyone is on vacation... Whats left of SCO is now renaming itself. The best name they could come up with was Tarantella... conjuring up warm fuzzy images for countless investors, as well as limitless mock fodder for folks like me. Reminds of an old Onion story... "New Corporate Logo Changes Everything".
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SCO Change Their Name to Tarantella More

SCO Change Their Name to Tarantella

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  • The first thing I thought of was the director of 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Reservoir Dogs', but perhaps it's just me...

    -grendel drago
  • What happened to SCO? The free software they released recently sucked badly (there are better tools under the GPL out there). SCO Unix seems to be dead. etc.
  • I was just wondering if they were related to the German Chocolate Spread maker...... Mmmm.. Tarantella...
  • I am really surprised, and a little concerned. What is this going to do for their image? I think they've spent so long building up a name.

    OT Why are all these companies changing their names to dances? Why not change Microsoft to Tango or Cha Cha, or maybe Horah if they want to go with an eastern feel.

  • Well, Name Change... (Score:4)

    by suwalski ( 176418 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:21AM (#833570)
    It's amazing what a name change can do. A new corporate image can completely change the meaning of the company, and it can motivate the employees. I'm not saying that this is necessarily happening in this casse, but a name change and even a new logo is healthy every now and then.

  • A rose by any other name ... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ... would still file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Buh-bye SCO, Linux rules!

  • Meaning of Tarantella (Score:3)

    by scrutty ( 24640 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:21AM (#833572) Homepage
    Its an Italian folk dance [streetswing.com] As featured in this reasonably well known poem [tryoung.com]

  • If the reverse had happened... if they were changing their name from Tarantella to SCO...

    Would we all be making Sour Cream and Onion jokes?

    (Really! That's what SCO makes me think of!)

    I suppose the old name just got too loaded down with bad 'legacy Unix' mojo, though -- you can see that they're trying to reinvent themselves: 'very much like a start-up' -- ha!

    Ten to one they haven't done a damn thing to change the way the company works internally, so they'll just churn out the same stuff yet again.

    -grendel drago
  • Im Quentin Tarentino, spokesman for Tarantella...

    Hmm, conjures up all sorts of interesting TV ads...

  • And here I thought those years of piano lessons were useless... A Tarentella [ubalt.edu] is not a reference to Tarantino [checkout.com], but a reference to a lively dance to stave off a tarantula [bugbios.com] bite.
  • I bet they got that from the World Wide Web. But isn't this particular spider's poisonous? Is that a friendly corporate image or what?

  • The rename game. (Score:5)

    by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:25AM (#833577)
    Renaming always helps. Look what "Itanium" did for "Merced" and "W2K" did for "NT 5".

    I'm thinking about renaming my "Chevy" to "Jaguar", my scratch-built PC to "HAL 9001", and myself to "Bond, James Bond".

    --
  • Could they have used the word "Tarantella" once more in their propaganda?

    Personaly, I am fed up with the derth of "Corp Talk" we have been seeing lately. There are too many company's with vauge buiseness goals, no visible product and and no leadership. Could someone explain, in plain english, just what these people DO? I get the sense many of these companys are just yaping dogs trying to make themselves look important by spewing imposible to understand press releases.
  • When company are bought or want to restructure this what they do. Make a name change. This helps to create a new image. Does not always work but it could not hurt.
  • but a name change and even a new logo is healthy every now and then Sounds familiar. Was it Lenin that said "A little revolution now and then is a good thing." Maybe Corel should try the same tactic.

  • They've got a new product (Score:4)

    by Iron_Slinger ( 126682 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:26AM (#833581)
    SCO, err Tarantella has a new product called, surprisingly enough, tarantella. It's basically a web app that allows different platforms to run applications through it.

    There is a demo here [sco.com]

    It's pretty cool, but it's dirt slow.

    They've got it set up so you can run Word or Powerpoint, a few unix apps, etc. all on your web browser.

    IS

  • PS (Score:1)

    by photozz ( 168291 )
    Before anyone states the obvious, I know they produce SCO

  • yah, my roommate keeps his Tarantella on top of my fridge...

    ...but why are we talking about pet spiders on slashdot?

  • Tarantella (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Is their name for a fairly cool browser
    technology which allows X clients and
    Windows apps to run inside your browser.

  • A dance thought to cure disease once thought transmitted by big hairy Tarantula spiders.

    mmmmmm...big hairy spiders. Good name for a company, or as Dave Barry [miamiherald.com] likes to say "a good name for a rock band".

    Sig=$lazyuser


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
  • Okay, I was wrong. They're truly idiots (or perhaps this is part of that 'marketing' black magic I keep hearing about) -- naming themselves after a superstitious tradition for warding off impending doom...

    Why didn't they just call themselves 'Death Throes Unix' or 'We're Dead Meat, We Just Haven't Stopped Moving'?

    In short, What Were They Thinking?!

    -grendel drago
  • don't forget.. to hide from creditors or pissed off customers.
  • A nice little folk song, and dance comprising a lot of foot stamping and jerking, as I remember its supposed to symbolise the actions a person makes when bitten by a tarrantula.

    shiver

    I suggest a nice fuzzy non-spider logo as those creepy little things give me the shivers.

  • Why is this so surprising? (Score:3)

    by mattdm ( 1931 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:30AM (#833589) Homepage
    After selling the OS part of the company, their Tarantella product is pretty much all they have left. I believe that it even said in some of the stories relating to the sale that SCO wanted to refocus themselves around this product. So, this name change is pretty much completely expected.

    It's a shame that all the cool names keep disappearing. I'm glad 3Com has let U.S. Robotics live on as a product line name at least.

    --

  • I personally think that the time for non open sourced Unices for X86 has passed. The only thing that was left from SCO (except some memories) was the name, so I think its much harder to relaunch business using a different brandname... and there are more than enough other good OSses theill have to compete against.

    Zappa
  • That would be a tarantula. Tarantella is a dance.
  • Oh God. A reference to The Illuminati! Trilogy. The worst book I haven't bothered to finish in a long long time. Even after over a year of attempting to get to grips with wildly unreadable prose I still couldn't hack it.

    Hagbard Celine. Doesn't get close to Hiro Protagonist as far as good names go.

  • They need to throw in a few buzzwords with their name change, kinda like the What Snooze guy:

    CorrectoMundo Decision Networks, Inc.
    Sunnyvale, CA. US
    We specialize in providing custom control tools that offer solutions to understanding, analyzing and planning information about ordering information systems and networked enterprise decision software to help you design affordable creative marketing managerial methodologies which meet the challenges of professional business-to-business turnkey sales services and information product networks. Also Bull Semen.
    http://www.mundo.com/correcto.html

    Axel

  • I was just wondering if they were related to the German Chocolate Spread maker...... Mmmm.. Tarantella...

    "Helpful Nutritional Information:
    Tarantella(TM) contains no more than six big furry spider portions per 100g of product."
  • They should have changed their name to SCONIX. :-)

    Mmmmm... scones... :-9
  • I am not sure if this is really such a great thing. Actually, that name (like many names nowadays) sounds pretty lame. Just look at the old name, that was the name of a business. But what does "Tarantella" mean? Or "Agilent", for that matter? "HP Medical" would have made a lot more sense. Or "Inprise", or ... All these names sound like pathetic attempts to pack a lot of meaning into a word, but that only leads to a name that just sucks.
  • They've got to be in big trouble if they're doing this.

    "Brand awareness" is supposed to be very valuable, according to marketing types. If SCO have decided to chuck away the brand awareness that they have in favour or a clean slate then things must be pretty bad.

  • Why Free SCO Sucks (Score:5)

    by Grendel Drago ( 41496 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:37AM (#833598) Homepage
    Free SCO stuff sucked because they didn't want to release it. Their low-end server share was getting eaten alive by Linux (though it had been on its way out for quite a while) and so they thought they could jump on the bandwagon and keep making their money.

    Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Since they didn't offer anything (well, certainly nothing worth the price) that Linux didn't, they couldn't compete.

    SGI, on the other hand, has the right idea. By giving up IRIX and supporting Linux development, they're

    • freeing up mucho resources to work on hardware, their primary source of revenue (which usually came with the software) and
    • making an already good operating system even better, by working on the XFS port, XFree86 development, and numerous smaller projects (like the testing suite)

    SGI makes out well, and Linux makes out well. This is how free software can help companies, not a half-hearted attempt at releasing stuff that the company doesn't even want.

    -grendel drago

  • As far as spiders go, this was a silly old belief that if tarantula bites you, you should put aside all other activities and dance at the top speed until completely exhausted. Otherwise lethal outcome is to be expected. Hence the name of the dance.
  • It can also act as a substitute for real change: "Oh, look! We're a completely new company! We may do everything the same, but look -- we have a new name! Whee!"

    I'll believe in a new SCO when I see it.

    -grendel drago
  • The only part of SCO Caldera didn't bye was the Tarantella subsidiary.

    Tarantella was an independant subsidery long before Caldera bought SCO.
  • Or 'Monkey Piss'... I've always been partial to 'Monkey Piss.'

    Yes folks, you too could look to find a cool sounding name, and face-off against countless other companies trying to Trademark/Copyright the same name and attempting to protect their own companies... you can battle it out through local courts, state courts, even the supreme court for copywright infringment or something similar...

    Or - for this limited time - you could show your true savy at making anything work and come up with a truly original name... I believe 'Monkey Piss' is indeed that name. Think about it...

    1. Instant eye catcher: Tell me the title of this thread didn't instantly catch your attention (unless it was immediately moderated to -1/Troll)
    2. People will remember your name - you instantly create name recognition... and I garountee any company named 'Monkey Piss' will instantly become the talk of the office and dinner table for that night.
    3. There are thousands of public domain/national geographic pictures of just this which you can instantly use in advertizing.
    4. You already have a mascott, and its way cuter than some creapy spider....even if it is peeing.

    Ok, well, maybe I'm on my own on this one.
  • It's some sort of compressed/lightweight version of X that speeds up response when in use over the network. I understand that it works really well, but i don't have any direct experience.

    Anyone else?
    --
  • They used to be Silicon Graphics, Incorporated. And they had the coolest damn logo of any computer company, but now all it is is those rounded-off letters. Waaah! I want my cool cubey-thing!

    -grendel drago

  • Uh, this is nothing new... (Score:4)

    by erat ( 2665 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:46AM (#833605)
    For those who are not aware of the software SCO actually sells (and until the merger is approved, the software that they still sell), OpenServer and Unixware are only two of their offerings. They have been offering a virtual network server/client system called Tarantella for some time now. It mimics Citrix's VNC client for Windows, but Tarantella is run through any web browser (maybe Citrix's offering is as well; I haven't tried either, personally).

    SCO is selling off their server and service divisions, but they're keeping their Tarantella division. It's only logical that they rename their company after the only product they're going to be selling. Everything that made SCO known other than this new product is being sold, so in essence what is SCO if it only sells Tarantella?

    It's an odd name, yes, but the name change is logical IMNSHO.

  • Re:They've got a new product (Score:3)

    by sporri ( 70882 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:52AM (#833606)
    It's more that just a web app. It reminds more of metaframe than anything else. (why use that when you can have X/VNC :) It is really quite impressive and is used for instance on freedesk.com [freedesk.com] running applix [vistasource.com](if you have not tried applix out then there is your change) it is tecnically impressive but not as fast as citrix and yes seems to crash. But it is an impressive product non the less. Read the docs at sco's website.
  • ...when a recording artist mistakenly sues SCO because they couldn't tell the difference between Tarantella and Gnutella.

    "tarantella.. hmm.. tella.. that rings a bell! OH YEAH, PIRACY! LAWSUIT! LAWSUIT!" -Lars Ulrich, sometime in the future
  • It has nothing to do with tarantulae, as in spiders. It has everything to do with the city of Taranto.
  • ...Scaldera
  • so you really want to compare Snow Crash to Illuminati? Snow Crash is a cyberpunk book (what a misuser term ...) if you didn't notice yet.
    and btw take a look around and you'll notice that I'm not the only one who LIKES Illuminati

  • The Future of Web Apps (Score:3)

    by 11223 ( 201561 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:58AM (#833611)
    Welcome to the future friends, where it's not how fast your computer is, but how fast your bandwidth is! I've got an OC3, how much do you have? Nevermind that it would be a heck of a lot cheaper to just by a goddamn computer than to rent this OC3-connected IA, but I've got the bandwidth. And with GLX, I can even play 3D games over the network as fast as my friend's P60 with an S3 Virge!

    The long and short of it is that this is SCO's plan to destroy desktop computing - the desktop computing that kicked SCO's ass in the marketplace, and this is their revenge - by forcing us to rent OC3's to get our applications. With the help of Microsoft (.NET is just another name for the Tarentella idea), they will destroy the PC revolution out of fear of the Linux revolution. We must stop them!

  • Why not "Tarantino"? (Score:3)

    by Apuleius ( 6901 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @04:58AM (#833612) Journal
    Their stuff (Like most software) gets written "from dusk till dawn" anyway.
  • But what does "Tarantella" mean? Or "Agilent", for that matter?

    Agilent doesn't mean anything! This was discussed on Slashdot [slashdot.org] a while ago, as a result of this lengthy Salon article [salon.com]. In a world where the snake-oil salesmen have rebranded themselves as "management consultants", these expensive corporate rebrandings are the corporate equivalent of the Emperor's new clothes. And as long as the senior management of these companies continue to listen to the nonsense spouted by the management consultants, we're going to see a lot more of these name changes. I wonder who long it will take until sanity and common sense prevail?

  • IBM's doing much the same thing that SGI is, they compete for a similar market, and IBM's on much more solid financial footing. I'm not saying there's room for only one company in the free software world, but there may only be room for one in the commercial world. SGI's decided to play in IBM's space, so they're going to have to be pretty creative when it comes to product differentiation.
  • Agilent is a lot more than what you called "HP Medical." The old HP electronic test equipment people are now Agilent, all their RF devices are now Agilent. Basically everything that Hewlett-Packard did that wasn't consumer products is now called "Agilent."

    Anyway, was Tarantella one of SCO's more (even recently) successful products? perhaps by dumping the SCO Unix and focusing on the one money-maker, they hope to prolong their existance. By identifying the company with that sole profitable product, perhaps they can get more investment money.

    Jeff

  • I think the word you meant is 'dearth' and it means the opposite of what you seem to think it does. 'Dearth' means scarcity or lack of something.
    with humpy love,
  • http://www.c3f.com/whatsnoo.html

    Axel

  • Well, if it's so slow (seems to be inherent property of any SCO-made software), it should be named "waltz" or somthing like that, tarantella is pretty fast dance :)
  • Isn't SCO the Santa Cruz operation that made some excellent skateboards back in the late 80's??? I don't know but everything seems to have gone downhill from there. Should have stayed in hardware...

    Tarantella? What the heck is that supposed to mean? Nobody's going to buy a skateboard from a company called Tarantella!

  • Hmm -- on their 'look what SGI stuff can do!' page, most of the applications are still computer graphics-based, like the glowing first down line for the Super Bowl, VR software for a University and 3D simulations. As I understands it, IBM works more with the mainframe/enterprise-server crowd. They may be competing head-to-head with *Sun*, but I still don't see SGI abandoning the graphics market any time in the foreseeable future.

    -grendel drago
  • Tarantellent.

    Much better, isn't it?

    If you don't get the joke (or even if you do), go read this extremely funny and informative article [salon.com] on branding/naming over at Salon.
  • This product isn't new (at least not in net time). The Linux version has been around since the beginning of this year, and on other platforms it's existed for at least a year before that.

    --

  • OK, so i had just awakened from a particularly bad dream, hair still all a mess, and thought to myself.. why not sit down and go on line for a while...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  • SGI sells a lot of supercomputers too, and IBM is definitely muscling in on that territory. For example, BU's SCV [bu.edu] has been basically an SGI shop for years, but the new computer we just purchased is an ASCI White.

    --

  • The name is crap because ... (Score:3)

    by Decado ( 207907 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @05:19AM (#833625)

    They probably had lots of cool names but tarantella was the only name for which they could still get a domain.

  • If my music history servers me properly tarantella is a name of a song. don't remember the name of the composer though, we played it in highschool.
    _____________________________________ ___________________
  • Reminds of an old Onion story... "New Corporate Log Changes Everything".

    Of course it changes everything! Its Log!
    ___

  • When you say "slow" do you mean the time you have to wait for the Java client to load, or the sluggishness of the user interaction? If the former, then that's a one-time thing. (Java, caching, yada yada yada.) If the latter, then that's a characteristic of thin/terminal/GUI systems, which is why I hate using such systems. (Did you click me? I guess you clicked me. I guess that means I gotta invert myself. OK, I'm getting ready to invert myself...) Despite behavior reminiscent of the ancient Age of Timesharing, terminal servers are all the rage. The only question is why the former SCO thinks it can compete with the established players in the area. Probably because it's they only product they've got left.
  • Does anyone else think of a large, black, hairy spider when they quickly glance at "Tarantella"?

    For some reason, the mental image of UnixWare crawling around in an aquarium seems quite fitting.

  • [ot]Re:City of Taranto (Score:3)

    by AbbyNormal ( 216235 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2000 @05:30AM (#833630) Homepage
    No, you are half right. It has to do with Taranto...but it has to do with Tarantullas:

    And I quoteth:
    "The St. Vitus' dance became a real public menace, seizing hundreds of people, spreading from city to city, mainly in the Low Countries, in Germany, and in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries. It was a kind of mass hysteria, a wild leaping dance in which the people screamed and foamed with fury, with the appearance of persons possessed. In these convulsive, frantic, and jerky dances, religious, medical, and social influences probably interacted in response to such things as the epilepsy-like seizures of persons suffering from the Black Death. Italy was afflicted with tarantism, an epidemic presumably caused by the bite of venomous spiders. Its effects had to be counteracted by distributing the poison over the whole body and "sweating it out," which was accomplished by dancing to a special kind of music, the tarantella."

    Source: Britannica.com [britannica.com]

    Thank you...come again.


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

  • Huh? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm not sure if the original submitter really understands what's going on here. Tarantella has been a product of SCO for some time. When SCO sold itself to Caldera they essentially spun this product off as a new company "Tarantella". The reason for this being that they thought the product could stand by itself as well as the fact that it has zero to do with the SCO Unix. We use Tarantella currently on Solaris (it has been ported to a number of platforms). Many people within our company swear by it (I'm not much of a fan myself but...). We have in fact standardized on it for a subset of our users who need the sort of access it provides. Tarantella is a good solid product (though, yes, a bit slow) and thus it makes absolute sense to make it it's own company. Matt Fahrner Manager of Networking Burlington Coat Factory
  • In case that's what you were thinking.

    conjuring up warm fuzzy images for countless investors, as well as limitless mock fodder for folks like me

    *** hates it when Slash editors don't do their research
    --
  • The problem with the 'Monkey Piss' name is that it is too easily turned into an epithet. 'Monkey Pus', obviously an undesirable association, will instantly be used by corporate detractors. Mock web site and fake ads will immediately start using a parody logo feature a festering sore on the ass of a simian, guaranteeing ridicule the world over. Competitive ads will feature tags lines like 'Monkey Pissing into the Wind' or 'Tired of being Monkey Pissed off?"

    No, 'Monkey Piss' is just not the right choice.

    I'd recommend 'Monkey Spunk.'
  • ...and myself to "Bond, James Bond".

    Not an original thought. Consider this classic dialog from Casino Royale [imdb.com]:

    "We'll call all our agents James Bond, 007."

    "Sir, won't that be terribly confusing?"

    "Exactly! The enemy won't know where to turn!"

  • naming themselves after a superstitious tradition for warding off impending doom...


    No.. they're naming themselves after their only worthwhile product.
  • ADDON: (Sorry..forgot to add the cross reference)

    Source 2: Britannica .com [britannica.com]

    Sorry, just didn't want to get sued or something.


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
  • This product has been around for ages. Guess this is the only thing left from SCO.
  • Citrix has a product called NFuse which allows you to use a web browser. They have a pretty cool demo where you can run MS Excel in your broswer window. NFuse is free, but everything else from Citrix is insanely expensive.

    -B

  • Tarantella has actually been around for a couple of years. They were a subsidiary of SCO but their product is really starting to take off. And now that SCO is falling under, I imagine this is a refocus of the company on a different flagship product.

    In regards to the Tarantella server, it is middleware which, when dropped into a workgroup, will web-enable Windows and *NIX applications automatically (assuming you have Windows Terminal Server). You can write a document with Microsoft Word and then switch over to Konsole to do some administrative work. I saw a demo of it at a showcase and it works wonderfully and seems very easy to use. It's slow but usable over a modem connection, but over a LAN, it's great! I encourage you to download the evaluation version available on the website http://tarantella.sco.com/dl-files/choice.html.

  • Why does Slashdot seem so anti-SCO. Not that I am "for" SCO, but there always seems to be a negative bias towards them.
  • Wasn't comparing the books, was just comparing the names. And Illuminati did have the world's first quintuple agent, which is quite a cool concept.

    each unto their own, I suppose.

  • Maybe Linus would be interested in renaming Linux to Lambada? Can penguins be taught to dance? I think we need a new ./ poll to decide this.
  • How about Bell Atlantic becoming Verizon? I keep trying to imagine a VERtical horIZON, even though this is probably not what it stands for. To think that someone got paid millions to come up with that name. Probably the same lame company that came up with Agilent.
  • I'm not sure if the original submitter really understands what's going on here.

    I do indeed know. The story wasn't posted quite as I submitted it... :)

  • Actually I think it's more of an improved version of VNC (look it up, it's a project based out of AT&T Research Cambridge), but that works with Windows Terminal Server. If you've got a WTS box, you can add Tarantella (SCO OpenServer/Unixware fits in the mix somehow) and let users running X Windows connect to the WTS box. Effectively, you can run Windows programs from your Unix box without running WINE/emulation.
  • I thought Tarantella was already taken as another piece of software's name?

    Tarantella is written by SCO. As it's pretty much all that was left after the Caldera deal, and because it was already a separate business unit, SCO are quite sensibly killing off the SCO brand and going with Tarantella Inc.

  • Re:Wow (Score:2)

    by Tet ( 2721 )
    Why are all these companies changing their names to dances?

    Well the SCO name change actually makes complete sense. Given that they've sold off the Unix business, the only product they have left is Tarantella, so they may as well name the company after it. The SCO brand name only has recognition in the Unix world anyway.

    The one I really don't understand is Scriptics, the company in charge of the Tcl scripting language, changing its name to Ajuba Solutions. Nope, don't get that one. Even if they want to distance themselves from being purely a Tcl company, the new name sucks!

  • I think Verizon's name came from one of these fake name factories too. I remember reading an article that said it was a combination of the Latin word Veritas (truth, or a bad name for a backup software company!) :) and horizon.

    Maybe the CEOs of BA and GTE just had an ego attack and both refused to give up the old name.

  • I couldn't agree more. I have worked as a financial analyst in the past and I can't believe the B.S. that many companies shovel out. (especially the so-called New Media nonsense that so much has been written about) Always remember two things: 1) The real things are still real and 2)You can get by on charm for about 15 minutes, after that, you better know something.
  • How about Bell Atlantic becoming Verizon? I keep trying to imagine a VERtical horIZON

    Well, maybe they're everything you want, they're everything you need, they're everything inside of you that you wish you could be....

    But actually, Verizon is a merger of the wireless divisions of Bell Atlantic and GTE. And the name's supposed to be "true horizon." Check out their FAQ [verizon.com] if you're interested.

    --

  • Was it Lenin that said "A little revolution now and then is a good thing."
    Well, it was Thomas Jefferson who said "God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. [virginia.edu]" (referring to Shays's Rebellion). (And that was with 13 states. With his reasoning, we should be having a Shay's Rebellion every third year.)
    Maybe Corel should try the same tactic.
    At least they've ousted Cowpland.
  • It's a big, slow spider which usually comes out in the late fall to breed.

    Why not DragonsWest? Then I could sell them my domain name ;-)

    I really think SCO (pronounced: sko) is much better. But then, look what the name Fatbrain did for Computer Literacy. Who would have thunk a name which sounds too close to Fathead would be a success.

    I wonder if DogPoop.com is taken yet...

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000
  • In case that's what you were thinking.


    conjuring up warm fuzzy images for countless investors, as well as limitless mock fodder for folks like me
    It still conjures up those images, and still provides mock fodder. Most people are going to make the tarantella - tarantula association, even without knowing about the reality of it.
  • Santa Cruz Operation has always sounded to me as if it were an arm of the mafia.

    Considering their involvement with Microsoft this seems very apt.

  • ... and myself to "Bond, James Bond".
    Well, it's either that or Bruce [adelaide.edu.au].

    -- Sig (120 chars) --
    Your friendly neighborhood mIRC scripter.

  • I mean, if I install MS Excel I have to click on a licensing agreement that puts certain restrictions on my use of the software, etc etc. Amongst other things doesn't such a user agreement usually state that only one person can use the software at a time, or that it can only be installed on 1 machine?

    I went to their Tarantella demo page [sco.com] and made a useless little excel spreadsheet that adds two numbers together. I saved it on their system using their software. Therefore I have just used a copy of Excel which I (AFAIK) do not have the legal right to use - unless they have some special deal in the works with MS.

    The software ran rather slowly, but then I am on a cable modem - if I was directly on a highpowered internal corporate network connection it would probably work just fine.

  • "Agilent" is a completely made up word that is supposed to connote "agile."
    I put it right alongside other meaningless words, like "Sapient," "Integra," and many other recent names of corporations or cars.

    However, a "Tarantella" has nothing to do with spiders like others have said... It's a type of dance. A Spanish or Mexican dance I believe, in an energetic fast-3 feel (more like a fast 6/8 that's counted in two).
    It would be like naming your company "Waltz" or "Tango." Or Lambada if that's your thing.

    But "Tarantella" is obscure enough to leave many people scratching their heads... and thinking of arachnids!
  • I have fond memories of the Old SCO! The Santa Cruz name was great! It conjured the image of hippie dope-smoking surfer dudes, which they were. They had a hot tub in their old building; I remember seeing the engineers walking naked through the hall to get to/from the hot tub! Those green-haired, dotcommers of today think *they're* cool--they should have seen the SCO of 12 years ago. That place rocked! -- ib

    --- Speaking only for myself,

  • The primary reason is that SCO has been denigrating Linux and the BSDs for years. They have been openly hostile to the Open Source community, and have come out against us in the press numerous times. Heck, quite a few of us have even received insulting faxes and sales literature from our friends at SCO. Basically even Microsoft hasn't treated Linuxers with as much disrespect as SCO has.

    Which is fine and dandy, I suppose. Or at least can be chalked up as part of "business," but from all accounts SCO has created some of the worst Unixen ever. I am fortunate to have never had to use it, but now that it is going away I am suddenly curious.

    Anyone know where I can get a hold of one of those "free" SCO CDs so I can see for myself how bad it is (was)?

  • I suggest changing Microsoft to Lancre Stick And Bucket Dance ;) ...it seems to have the same basic spirit...
  • Remember that scene where the Major General and his daughters are exhorting the cops to "Go to battle, go to glory, though ye die in combat gory?" The cops keep dancing around chanting, "We go, we go (yes, we really, really go), Tarantella, Tarantella, we go, we go," trying to postpone their departure to "die in combat gory".

    Seems like the perfect metaphor for SCO to me.
    ;)

    Vovida, OS VoIP
    Beer recipe: free! #Source
    Cold pints: $2 #Product

  • Sounds like ... tarantula!

    -JD
  • too bad Intel didn't think of the "Itanic" pun. I bet they're wishin they'd called it something else by now.
  • SCO was on sale.
    Caldera was insterested.
    SCO is old and lacks the image of an innovative company that it therefore is rather than an old companyosaur (IMHO their products SCO*Unix and UnixWare were reliable enough for server use).
    So, it sounds like that before getting bought SCO wants to refresh its identity with a new name.
    SCO doesn't rhyme with Caldera...
    Hence Tarantella ?

    --
  • According to WHOIS it's been registered since May 2, 2000. If find this surprising because they've been selling the product for much longer than that.


    ----

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