OK, so I just made that up. But even so, it's a rule of thumb that's been demonstrated on plenty of occasions in the past, particularly by Microsoft-perhaps one or two times too many, considering how things are going for the Redmond folks in court recently.

So if my theorem holds any water, you can predict how it applies to Linux and the Unix-on-Intel market. If you were in the Unix-for-Intel business, you'd have to ask yourself some pretty hard questions these days-like "How do I stay relevant to my customers and still make money when they can get Linux for free?"

SCO obviously has, and the company's answers to those questions are embodied in the latest release of its UnixWare operating system. And it looks like at least part of the answer is to give away some licenses. SCO will allow noncommercial users to use UnixWare 7.1 free of charge. On top of that, UnixWare 7.1 also includes binary compatibility with Linux applications compiled for the Intel platform, so users can take advantage of the wealth of open software available for that operating system.

But there's a lot more to SCO's product strategy than just giveaways. UnixWare 7.1 incorporates several pieces of SCO's Tarantella technology, which turns a Java-equipped Web browser into a thin client that can run remote Unix and Windows applications.

Webtop, as SCO calls the technology, can be used to create a customized, task-oriented desktop for users without the need for specialized client software such as a PC X-Windows server, Citrix WinFrame, or a Windows terminal. You can run any application that runs on UnixWare-including Windows 95 applications through UnixWare's Merge emulator-simply by going to the appropriate URL.