IBM's strategy

IBM's strategy

Posted Jun 27, 2003 17:08 UTC (Fri) by MathFox (subscriber, #6104)
In reply to: The UT site is incorrect and obsolete by StevenCole
Parent article: Penguin on Thin Ice? (FindLaw)

If IBM wanted it, they could have settled with or bought SCO. Doing so would have been an invitation for other extortioners to try too. I think IBM is taking the short- and medium term losses to keep up the image of a company that you don't want to meet in court.
Looking at the news: SCO allready is rapidly losing attention from the media, they have nothing new to tell... I wouldn't be surprised if the IBM spin machine would start leaking bits of news to change the image SCO tried to create, or would they use their Open Source allies for that job???
From several sources I've heard that the SCO-IBM case delayed AIX or Linux deployments for one, sometimes two weeks. The amount of media attention the case generates (bad publicity is publicity too, and I'm not sure whether this media attention is bad for Linux) could even help Linux acceptance. At least it is a very good reason to educate people about the difference between GPL and propriatary licenses.
I am sure that IBM is handling this case in the best of its own interests; but it is in the long term interests of IBM too to get Linux out free! I don't worry too deeply.

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