« Spammers | Main | Reading Blogs »
June 12, 2003
Sco vs Linux
I have been preparing some comments about the SCO vs Linux issue but everytime I get the bits ready a new twist develops. Instead I am going to share all the references and links and let you read it yourself.
For an "official" open source response to the lawsuit please refer to OSI Position Paper on the SCO-vs.-IBM Complaint.
For the latecomers to this dispute, it all started way back when we were young ... the grass was greener ... the trees were taller ... and as George Burns put it: the air was clean and sex was dirty instead of the other way around ...
The best introduction to this that I have found was a comment written by Rosco Coltrane in a slashdot article. Paraphrasing his work (check the link above for the full comments):
When I was, oh what?, five years old, I remember that kind of talk in the courtyard at school during recess :
- Hey, Johnny stole my yellow marble
- No I DID NOT !
- YES YOU DID !
- It's not your marble anyway, it was mine, I just told you to borrow it, I didn't give it to you
- I'll tell my Mom Bruce stole Robert's marble, and you'll be GROUNDED !
- I DID NOT !
- YES YOU DID ! ...
Replace one of these kids by SCO, another by Novell, a third by IBM, a fourth by the Linux community, the one who tells Mom by Microsoft, the courtyard by the computer industry and Mom by the DOJ and there you have it.
*sigh*
Summary of key points:
1. SCO claims to have the rights and IP to Unix (and threatens Linux/AIX users)
2. Novell claims the rights to Unix (and that SCO has licencing rights but no IP)
3. SCO claims IBM polluted Linux by putting SCO code in the Linux kernel (this is a reduction of the original claim)
4. Robert Cringely suggests that SCO polluted Linux by themselves
5. Linux hackers claim SCO violated the GPL
The complications arise because SCO is actually Caldera (who bought SCO and used the name). Caldera used to sell their own Linux (hence the GPL problem) and Caldera were the ones contracted by IBM to modify Linux for the mainframe (hence the pollution could have gone either way).
Bob Cringely (author of "Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date") has had three recent columns which covered the issues from his perspective: Why Don't You and He Fight?, Going for a Streak-Free Finish, and Technician, Steal Thyself.
For a lighter side try these three cartoon strips from user friendly (in order): 30th May, 31st May, and 9th June.
Or alternately this explanation for senior executives (and Dukes of Hazard fans). If, on the other hand, Gilbert & Sullivan is more to your taste?
Actually I am beginning to wonder if SCO has employed the former Iraq Minister for Misinformation (that would explain both the stupidity from SCO and the lack of pictures of him at the new Chinese dam).
Posted by Ozguru at June 12, 2003 12:06 AM
