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Xref: sserve comp.unix.bsd:2829 comp.org.eff.talk:8320 Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!news.hawaii.edu!ames!olivea!uunet!wupost!gumby!destroyer!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.unomaha.edu!cwis!jsaker From: jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu (James R. Saker Jr.) Newsgroups: alt.suit.att-bsdi,comp.unix.bsd,comp.org.eff.talk Subject: USL's Pieper profiled in UNIXWorld (selections) Keywords: usl,pieper,bsdi,unix,cashcow,deathstar Message-ID: <jsaker.712460034@cwis> Date: 30 Jul 92 01:33:54 GMT Sender: news@news.unomaha.edu (UNO Network News Server) Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Lines: 74 Roel Pieper, CEO of USL, was profiled in this month's UNIXWorld. I've extracted some selections from the article as they provide further insight into both USL's corporate motivations and Pieper's personal vision. For the complete article, pick up a copy of UNIXWorld (August 1992). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sections from "The Great Conciliator" - Gary Andrew Poole, UNIXWorld, August 1992, pp. 59-60. Roel Pieper, president and CEO of UNIX System Laboratories Inc., doesn't care about the UNIX community's past. He just wants to make money. Sitting in a bar, The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s Doug Michels and Hal Computer Systems Inc.'s Andy Heller are talking about the old days of UNIX. As folklore is recalled and infighting relived, Pieper nods politely. Frankly though, he's bored. "I'm not a UNIX historian," he laughs. "I /don't/ care."" This president of Summit, N.J.-based USL - the company that invented UNIX and licenses the source code, including System V Release V - worked on mainframe software until two years ago. But he's less concerned with code than cash. And indeed, USL has just launched its first commercial product, SVR4.2 (code-named Destiny), which Pieper shepherded through USL. He expects that SVR4.2 will help produce the first profits in USL's short four-year history. ...(deleted)... A native of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Pieper was an exceptional athlete who played for the Dutch national backetball team, and earned a reputation as a fearless carouser. He and a friend were tossed out of Switzerland for being publicaly drunk - and for advertising their condition with a dip in a public fountain. When he was 18, Pieper's 6-foot-5-inch frame suffered 60 fractures when a car smacked into his motercycle on the autobahn. "I was a piece of yogurt," he says. ...(deleted)... Sometimes, his friends say Pieper's aggressiveness goes too far. "Roel wants to charge ahead so fast that he can leave people behind," says Moshe Mor, a former product manager at Software A.G., where Pieper worked before joining USL. ...(deleted)... After being named USL's marketing boss, Pieper says he clearly saw that UNIX had an excellent shot at becoming an operating systems leader. As users upsize from PCs and downsize from mainframes, they need a more robust operating system, he says, one capable of handling multitasking, multiprocessing, advanced mail capabilities, and transaction-intensive applications. USL wants to position UNIX as /the/ operating system - from desktop to server - for the 1990s with SVR4.2, its new version of UNIX. SVR4.2 will have a graphical user interface, a probable base price of $300, and the capability to run DOS applications. Destiny is a direct competitor to Microsoft Windows and IBM's OS/2, as well as other UNIX vendors. To make sure Destiny isn't ignored, Pieper has tripled the size of USL's marketing force to 90. ...(deleted)... Plenty of others support Pieper's vision. In April, AT&T accepted the first outsize investment in USL, selling more than 20 percent of the unit's equity to 11 outside companies, including NEC Corp., Sun, Oki Electric Industry Co., and Motorola Inc. In addition, Novell Inc. and USL have invested $30 million in cash and other assets into a joint venture, Univel, which will add connectivity features to SVR4.2 and distribute it as Unixware. ...(deleted)... The step outside the UNIX community is the one Pieper regards as important. "We have to prove ourselves to the market," Pieper says. "I'll do my damnedest to make the UNIX architecture a success. If we do, I think we can fundamentally reshape the industry." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Jamie Saker jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu . .. #Insert your favorite legal disclaimer here# . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .