SCO declares war on Linux (A study in self-immolation)

Mark Komarinski mkomarinski at wayga.org
Thu May 15 16:04:06 EDT 2003


On Thu, May 15, 2003 at 03:53:59PM -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> On Thu, 15 May 2003 15:31:53 -0400
> Mark Komarinski <mkomarinski at wayga.org> wrote:
> 
> > When SCO sued IBM, it was because IBM submitted patches that were
> > accepted by the likes of Red Hat, but IIRC, these patches were not
> > part of the standard kernel from kernel.org.  Thus, if SCO sold copies
> > of Linux that did not have the offending code, there would not be a
> > problem.
> > 
> > This would at least explain why they didn't go after Linus first.
> > Going after Linus would have been easy, or at least easier than going
> > after IBM.  They could then use the judgement against Linus to
> > go after IBM/RedHat/me/you.
> This is true, but why did they then Withdraw their Linux offerings?
> This would mean to me that possibly Caldera Linux is tainted too. 

When I wrote the above, I had the phrase "too bad SCO keeps changing
their story".  But I took it out.  I'm not sure anyone knows what
their plan is, even SCO.  If the stock kernel has the offending code,
why not add Linus as a defendant?

Why withdraw their Linux offering?  It at least makes them look
consistent.  They don't like Linux, and they're going to prove it.

> As mentioned earlier, I think the risk to Linux today is mostly one of
> PR until SCO widens their suit to include Red Hat, SuSE, Linus...

MSFT will try to take advantage of it, probably tied to their
"don't lose to Linux" campaign.  Good thing most existing
Linux users can look past the FUD.  New users will have the
choice of potential lawsuits (from SCO) or higher licensing
costs now for MSFT products.

-Mark
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