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Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times)
E-Commerce Times is running a "special
report" on the SCO case. The article is most interesting in that it
shows that the wider press is beginning to figure out that there are GPL
issues involved in SCO's having distributed the disputed code. "'The
GPL issue is something we've just recently been looking at,' SCO
spokesperson Blake Stowell told the E-Commerce Times. 'It's been said that
maybe we've contributed Unix source code to Linux, because SCO was formerly
a distributor of Linux.'
However, Stowell said, when the company discovered that its source code had
been incorporated into Red Hat Linux, it stopped
distributing its own version of Linux and ended any further Linux
development. This move, he noted, showed that SCO was acting according to
another GPL clause that could shore up its case." It's about time
they started thinking about the GPL...
On a similar front, NZheretic's comment to another LWN article is worth a look for those who haven't seen it; there's a great deal of detail regarding SCO's involvement in the Trillian project, which worked to bring Linux to the ia64 processor. (Log in to post comments)
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 12, 2003 18:59 UTC (Thu) by ccchips (guest, #3222) [Link] I suppose this is a pipe-dream, but wouldn't it be nice if the SCO people convert? If they did, they might see some huge gains in their income (and their stock prices.) They could hire some people who understand what's going on, and really accomplish something.I mean, they *did* get a really good review of SCO Linux in Linux Journal, no?
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 12, 2003 19:38 UTC (Thu) by erat (guest, #21) [Link] Unfortunately, I think a bigger pipe dream would be the developer community sweeping this all under the rug. Looking back over the history of Caldera's rocky relationship with FOSS developers, I think it's safe to say that no matter what they do, it won't be enough.Caldera made major contributions to Linux back when it was a Linux company. They funded RPM 1.0 (in fact, and I hope this isn't breaking any NDA that I may be under, Red Hat didn't want to produce it; they were happy with "RPP", their Perl based packaging tool that was lifted from the Bogus Linux distro), they saved Netscape browsers on Linux (yep, they paid millions for the right to maintain it when Netscape Corp. decided Linux wasn't a viable platform. Just consider what the FOSS scene would look like had there been no Netscape browser to open-source), they contributed to XFree86 and SMP development, contributed engineering resources to kernel development (PPP, SPX, IPX, some others that I don't recall off the top of my head), participated in the formation and staffing of the LSB project, on and on and on. In spite of all of this, the bulk of comments about Caldera here and in other forums (cough*SLASHDOT*cough) is that Caldera's a parasite and never gave anything back for all the stuff they took (I don't recall Caldera taking anything in all the years I worked there; when they did something wrong, they did what they could to try to fix it. The result wasn't always better, but they honestly tried). Bringing this stuff up in discussions would shut folks up for a week or so, then after they thought it was safe to revert back to the flameage Caldera would once again be the scourge of Linux. I have completely lost my faith in the long term memory (or even handedness) in the majority of the FOSS development community. Once a company like Caldera is tattooed, that's it. Nobody cares what they've funded, what they've open sourced, what they've staffed, whatever. Someone has to be the evil one, and Caldera drew the short straw. I still maintain that SCO today is not the same company as Caldera yesterday. Caldera was a good company.
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 12, 2003 20:10 UTC (Thu) by error27 (subscriber, #8346) [Link] The thing that hurt Caldera's PR was Ransom Love. He would always say things to upset people.He would say things like "Linux users don't understand PR. They should try move out of their parents basements and get jobs or something. And also the GPL is stupid. People me because I'm honest." It's funny that he's been so quiet recently. But probably wise.
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 12, 2003 21:06 UTC (Thu) by josh_stern (guest, #4868) [Link] I don't really know what motivates people to bash based on little or nofactual information. But I think that non-bashers were somewhat cool to the way in which per-seat licensing kept popping up at various places in Caldera's business model. The was justifiable, healthy skepticism about whether that model was ultimately viable for an open source company, and hence skepticism about Caldera's commitment to open source.
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 12, 2003 21:42 UTC (Thu) by josh_stern (guest, #4868) [Link] The 'The' starting the last sentence above should have been a'There'. Sorry about the typo.
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 13, 2003 2:13 UTC (Fri) by erat (guest, #21) [Link] There's a difference, though. You're talking about licenses, and I'm talking about an OS. I'll agree that Caldera had some unorthodox views of open source and free software licensing, and in the effort of seeking middle ground between open and proprietary worlds they made a few mistakes, but at all times Caldera was a pro-Linux company.
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 13, 2003 2:59 UTC (Fri) by josh_stern (guest, #4868) [Link] I'm talking about one key factor for why they had less than stellar P.R. with theLinux/open source community. That factor was intimately intertwined with with the community's general lack of trust. In retrospect, the community was kind of correct because the owners of company took it in a number of different directions when they decided that was a better way for them to make a buck (embedded DOS alternative, proprietary Unix, etc.). I'm not disagreeing with the points that people may have a) treated Caldera unfairly and b) shortchanged or been unaware of their contributions. But I'm saying that there were things about Caldera that always set them apart from the other Linux companies in a way that made them seem less committed to both Linux and the direction in which the bulk of the community wanted Linux to go.
US legal system? Posted Jun 13, 2003 2:09 UTC (Fri) by Odysseus (guest, #11518) [Link] is there really nothing that any US company can do to muzzle these guys?Or does the larger business community see through all of SCO's FUD for what it is? I really doubt this latter view of facts. At least some prospective Linux customers would have thoughts similar to Thurrott's and Didio's. And if customers are being scared away that's a huge incentive for IBM to settle. If IBM settles SCO has a HUGE war chest to come after the smaller Linux distributors. McBride is now saying they can order all copies of AIX "destroyed". And his latest remarks (same article) on Linux The whole concept of getting something for nothing just doesn't hold up," he says. "The notion that you're going to run a Fortune 1,000 company on something that in the end could be more like Napster than an enterprise software system,
US legal system? Posted Jun 13, 2003 4:14 UTC (Fri) by hathawsh (subscriber, #11289) [Link] It's apparent that the businesses involved are patiently waiting for whatever happens next. This is the right strategy for now, since SCO has only made empty threats. In the meantime, SCO continues to bring out new publicity stunts. The image of a little yapping dog comes to mind.What's most amazing about this event is the complete change in the company's apparent character. Years ago I made a short list of companies I most wanted to work for, prominently featuring Caldera. Caldera made great strides toward a well engineered and broadly usable computing environment built on open source. Debian might have fit my geeky profile better, but I had a master plan. My plan was to learn a version of Linux that I could give to my grandparents. Once I learned all of the quirks in a particular distribution, I would give my grandparents a computer with Linux preinstalled. When they called for help, I would have built up all the necessary experience and I'd be able to answer any question. Helping your own family get into computers is wonderfully fun! Caldera was in sync with me and was going to help me fulfill this little dream. Somewhere, Caldera took a wrong turn. I'm not privy to any insider information, so I don't know what happened, but I suspect it has something to do with the IPO days. Caldera alienated its character and switched to an entirely different business. Admittedly, the new business seems more profitable, but it's unethical. I don't see how SCO can be taking themselves seriously. They are wildly claiming that both Linux and AIX should be shut down because of some privileged developer's failure to keep code separated. The only rational explanation I can find for SCO's behavior is that this is a publicity stunt designed to launch them into a larger market. What a shame it is to see all of this happen. A while ago I moved to Mandrake, which doesn't quite have the same vision Caldera did, but it's close enough that I may be able to fulfill my hopes yet. May Caldera be remembered as a superb Linux company that lost its way.
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 13, 2003 4:04 UTC (Fri) by foo@share-foo.com (guest, #7940) [Link] Don't mistake this for this for a total dig. I just want to point out that there are presantly no less than four SCO related articles on the front page of LWN. I think it would be a good idea to limit yourselves to a maximum of three SCO related articles on the front page at any given time. I know everyone loves a train wreck, but after a while it just gets morbid. Especially when you consider just how long this circus is likely to last.-r.
Will SCO's Suit Chill the Penguin? (E-Commerce Times) Posted Jun 13, 2003 18:13 UTC (Fri) by macinta (guest, #11624) [Link] However, Stowell said, when the company discovered that its source code had been incorporated into Red Hat Linux, it stopped distributing its own version of Linux and ended any further Linux development.OK, so what exactlty is this: ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/updates/OpenLinux/3.1.1/Server/CSSA-2003-020.0/SRPMS ?
If the Worst Happens, What Are Open Source Options? Posted Jun 14, 2003 14:49 UTC (Sat) by wweber (guest, #11678) [Link] Suppose the worst happens, and it is determined that Linux has everything that SCaldera says it has for "acquired" code. Then what? Will they cooperate in our removal of it, to purify Linux, or will they demand all Linux source be burned, along with every Linux CDROM? And is my one Caldera Linux machine still legal? If it were possible to know what they are really trying to accomplish it would be easier to plan for the future. I have this FreeBSD distribution and book waiting around on a shelf, should the need arise, but it's just not as smoothly polished as the Mandrake 9.0 PowerPack I'm using.
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