Let's Look at this From the SCO Group's Perspective

Let's Look at this From the SCO Group's Perspective

Innumerable electrons have been used to vent anger at the SCO Group for their brain-dead strategy, but I've yet to see anyone try to seriously try to understand why they thought they'd have any chance at winning this lawsuit. Anyone who has considered taking on IBM must know that they have a battalion of lawyers on salary to do exactly what the Open for Business article describes: wear down any opposing party with their own motions and other legal paper, until either they settle or drop the case.

So what _was_ MacBride thinking?

A look at his resume (which I found on the SCO Group website) offers a hint: his most visible achievement was raising venture capital during the late 1990s for a couple of start-ups. And it is intreguing that he is barely mentioned as being associated with either one. (He is mentioned as an emeritus senior VP for the second company -- PointServe -- but this may be an out-of-date page that needs updating.) He briefly worked after that point for Franklin Covey -- but "briefly" is the word that seems to describe all of his posts since leaving Novell.

In short, he spent his time securing funding during a time when anyone with sufficient tenacity could do it for almost any high-tech company. Well, sufficient tenacity -- & willingness to sign away enough of the start-up -- which might explain why he left the two start-ups that he was involved in.

Putting this bit of speculation aside, it is clear from his resume that MacBride has little technical experience: while he has a BS from Brigham Young, his resume does not mention what discipline it was in. And while he was a VP for embedded systems at Novell, I find it noteworthy that when I think of Novell's achievements, embedded systems is not at the top of the list. The fact he lists his sales accomplishments for both Novell and for IKON (an office copier company), strengthens this suspicion of a lack of technical knowledge.

What does this mean? I strongly suspect that MacBride does not understand the Bazaar model of Open Source/Free Software at all! This is supported by the SCO Group's claim that Linux was to SCO what a bicycle is to a professional-written operating system, something no one who worked on the Caldera Linux distribution would seriously claim. MacBride cannot imagine a world where amateurs -- that is people who are not paid but contribute their labor out of love for the topic -- can produce software at least as good as professionals.

If this is MacBride's justification for deciding to sue IBM, then it would appear to him to be a slam-dunk win: where else could Linux find the professional developers to make it a viable offering? And since this would be such a blinding epiphany to him, he would not need any influence form anyone else (e.g. Microsoft), & would be able to convince the rest of the executive committee and the board of directors to follow him off to tilt at windmills.

The SCO Group is not looking to be bought off or out by IBM: MacBride thinks he has stumbled across a huge pot of gold that will make everything all right with his company. Unfortunately, he is mistaken. If IBM contributed any intellectual property that belongs to SCO to Linux development, it was minor, and/or in error. And by the time the rest of his company realizes that, drops the suit & gets rid of MacBride, the SCO Group will be out of money, find its customers have gone, & be bankrupt.

And unfortunately, MacBride will probably find himself in another leadership position in the high-tech industry where he will make a similar mistake.

Geoff