Couldn'ta happened to nicer people. [LWN.net]

Couldn'ta happened to nicer people.

Posted Sep 12, 2003 13:44 UTC (Fri) by jmitchel (guest, #11611)
In reply to: SCO's McBride on his open letter to the Linux community (ComputerWorld) by rknop
Parent article: SCO's McBride on his open letter to the Linux community (ComputerWorld)

Clearly, the free model just about killed our company, and I would argue that it's going to kill a lot of other software companies if the GPL [General Public License] is able to gain a foothold and run rampant throughout the industry.

It really couldn't have happened to more deserving companies. SCO products suck. They have always sucked. They would not have ceased to suck without free software. As far as I know, SCO's competitors in the unix on x86 space suck, they always sucked, they would not have ceased to suck without free software.

According to an old copy of the jargon file (circa 1993) SCO's own engineers dubbed their CDE port Open Deathtrap. Inspires confidence, doesn't it?

The problem isn't the GPL. Linux would have beaten SCO (slower, but as surely) if it cost $699 and didn't come with source. If Linux hadn't been developed, *BSD would have beaten SCO with its BSD (and some days rabidly anti-GPL) licensed code. *BSD would have beaten SCO even if it had cost $699 and didn't come with source.

Free software has affected everybody, but the companies that give reasonable value-add are still doing fine. Cisco hasn't gone under because people were building cheap PCs to do routing. Sun and HP haven't gone under because people decided they could run Payroll on a cheap PC with Linux and MySQL. And if you need a mainframe, you need a mainframe, you buy IBM and they'll be happy to ship it with Linux if that floats your boat.

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Couldn'ta happened to nicer people.

Posted Sep 12, 2003 16:49 UTC (Fri) by wweber (guest, #11678) [Link]

Your word choice is "lacking even in verbal vigor, save in the ears of those to whom only the squalid sounds strong". Rebuttals of this kind are not helping dispel the impression of open-source software users and developers that Rob Enderle's articles gave months ago. In any way could you replace the raw scorn with some information?

Couldn'ta happened to nicer people.

Posted Sep 12, 2003 17:31 UTC (Fri) by gsc (guest, #6830) [Link]

You may not have appreciated the delivery, but the message is 100% spot on target. I for one, appreciate straight talk that communicates effectively and economically. I find no fault w/the original comment in any way. It must be difficult to be so delicate in such a vulgar time.

Couldn'ta happened to nicer people.

Posted Sep 12, 2003 19:39 UTC (Fri) by allesfresser (subscriber, #216) [Link]

Absolutely. The comment was in fact right on target, but the quote from Tolkien brought up a most appropriate image in my mind: Darl McB as Grishnakh. :-) Now that works nicely.

Couldn'ta happened to nicer people.

Posted Sep 13, 2003 2:25 UTC (Sat) by wweber (guest, #11678) [Link]

Actually, Saruman and Wormtongue come to mind when one considers the "way with words" that the SCO execs McBride and Sonntag have. Anyway, I would still find some description of the inferiority of the SCO products of interest, occasionally.