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Linus Comments on SCO v IBM
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Understanding is always the understanding of a smaller problem in relation to a bigger problem. -- P.D. Ouspensky
Atypical of a dying company's last gasp... Sue 'em (Score:3, Interesting)
Why am I not surprised?
Re:The crux of the article (Score:4, Interesting)
Correct me if I'm wronge... (Score:3, Interesting)
Would it help to email to SCO & IBM... (Score:1, Interesting)
would this help
Fear (Score:4, Interesting)
What I fear is that a way to win the case could be IBM showing some hidden card in their software patents pool. What about something generic enough to say "I own the patents on multitasking"? or concurrent file access, or even the "while" loop, something in some way that disables SCO claims but puts on the table something big enough to be considered a threat to all the industry. Is like using atomic bombs in a war, after one of the parts uses one, all the others feel validated to do the same and we all lose.
A Bicycle?!?? (Score:5, Interesting)
A bicycle??!? Ok, a free bicycle...that seats as many as a luxury car, on just as comfortable seats, and has the same horsepower as the luxury car, and that comes complete with design schematics and a suite of tools that allow you to build more "bicycles", oh and you can give them away to your friends.
Oh, and now nobody is really interested in luxury cars anymore... maybe that's that's what SCO is so mad about.
--
Was it the sheep climbing onto the altar, or the cattle lowing to be slain,
or the Son of God hanging dead and bloodied on a cross that told me this was a world condemnded, but loved and bought with blood.
Economic Perspective (Score:4, Interesting)
Just took a look at a financial site and noticed that dear old SCO/Caldera appears to have a market cap of $32.9 million today. As such, I wonder, what will be the total cost to IBM to properly defend themselves in this suit, plus the amount that they spend on "licensing" Unix from SCO? At least $32.9M perhaps? Maybe more...
Seems to me that the logical step for IBM now is to settle this suit by simply acquiring the plaintiff. Even before this suit was filed, it kinda made sense for quite a few reasons:
Should IBM buy SCO? (Score:1, Interesting)
A Question (Score:0, Interesting)
Linux & Unix both descend from the same ancestral home at AT&T (I believe).
Caldera owns the AT&T IP.
The DMCA is an insane piece of legislation.
By connecting the following points is it possible that the sky could fall and all OS descendants of Unix could be affected?
Odds are I am horribly wrong, and hope I am - but please, enlighten me.
Re:The crux of the article (Score:5, Interesting)
Kirby
What IBM should do (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Loud-mouthed weasel! (Score:5, Interesting)
Linux was a pun on Linix and Linus
and
Linix is short for Linus's Minix
SCO asserted in the suit that
Linux is short for Linus + Unix.
Obviously they know the origin of the name better
(and of course Linus's version has newsgroup postings backing it up that only shows that deja/google is in on the conspiracy to defraud SCO).
This is important for SCO since they have 0 rights over Minix.
Re:Dennis Ritchie Comments and Documents from (Score:5, Interesting)
It's also one of the many reasons my desktop doesn't get those evil bugs that seem to plague the "feedlot" computers that run Windows.
Think of my boxen here as "free range".....
Re:Business Plan (Score:2, Interesting)
Those who can't sue, teach law school.
Re:I told you so. (Score:5, Interesting)
They already have enough of a patent portfolio to make the computing industry look like Kuwait after Iraq got through with it. However, IBM has as much to lose from such a firestorm as anyone else.
Fear the man who has nothing to lose. That man is SCO.
Re:IBM is going to fight... (Score:3, Interesting)
You knew this was going to happen. Ever since SCO announced this lawsuit, I was just waiting for IBM to come in and take them out. You know, I almost feel bad for SCO. Almost.
Re:The point is something else... (Score:5, Interesting)
In my opinion, if SCO -isn't- looking for a buy-out, they're nuts. They don't have clout in the market anymore and they probably don't have the coffers needed to pursue these infringements. I'm not saying I agree with their claims, but if they are looking to get bought, it's a proven strategy to build up a portfolio of cases and then sell off to someone with more muscle.
Re:"Linus came forth"? (Score:2, Interesting)
That's been my philosophy as well. (I usually get metamodded to hell
I really wish that they would get around to fixing the mod system. Despite some of the stupidity that goes on here,
Re:A Bicycle?!?? (Score:2, Interesting)
A bicycle is one of the most efficient, highly developed machines ever built. In the time you need to walk two miles, you could easily cover a ten on a bike. It uses a small amount of resources in a simple yet highly effective way. You can easily maintain it yourself, if you wish. It's cheap to buy and keeps on working well, even if the hardware you use is far from "state of the art" (much like my 30-year-old Stella touring bike and Brooks saddle).
Compare this work of mechanical art to your average luxury sedan (yechhh!). It's big, it's bloated, it's expensive, before the payments are though it's out of style, and you must periodically pay the high priests of maintenance a king's ransom to keep the damn thing running. It took large amounts of resources just to make it, and obscene amounts to run it. All of this supports features you don't need (perhaps even loath), and which will fail far too soon. Worst of all, it will be a victim of planned obsolesence within a decade (auto parts store: "You want a fuel pump for a what?"), and you must unload it for a fraction of what you paid and sign a contract to buy a new model that's so much worse you wish you kept the old clunker (but you can't, because the broken proprietary parts are all obsolete).
Yes, SCO has a luxury car all right. For all I care, they can keep it!
Re:Who cares what Linus thinks? (Score:5, Interesting)
It takes chutzpa for SCO to claim that it could do things with operating systems that IBM couldn't. I predict there will ultimately be a charred and smoking gash in the land where SCO now stands.
I Appreciated... (Score:3, Interesting)
PLEASE DO SOMETHING (Score:1, Interesting)
a) Never created UNIX (just got the rights after 999 tranfers)
b) Has as a CEO the most evil person around
c) Has a stupid name
d) Creates a distro (and SPOILS linux' name)
do harm us.
Please people, do think and find a solution for this not to touch linux.
Maybe Linus doesn't care, and most programmers don't, but it is not about THEM, nor about the CURRENT linux users and programmers.
It's about the FUTURE people.
If SCO succeeds over this and creates a reputation for linux that harm the beliefs of people for the years to come
a) People will no longer care about Linux, having
i) Less programmers for linux
ii) Less Users
DO STH, YOU OF YOU WHO CAN.
Re:Loud-mouthed weasel! (Score:3, Interesting)
SCO asserted in the suit that
Linux is short for Linus + Unix.
There wouldn't have that much trouble if he's still naming it freax [google.com]
Re:The crux of the article (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book
HOW-TO: SCO - Linux migration (Score:3, Interesting)
* SCO to Linux Conversion book,
* SCO to Linux HOW-TO,
* SCO to Linux Migration Case Histories,
and start sourceforge site with all necesery scripts, etc?
Re:A Question (Score:3, Interesting)
Linux is not directly descended from anything AT&T did. It is a clean room implimentation started before the DMCA. Therefore the DMCA at most applies only to a small amount of the code. And there is an introperability clause in the DMCA that gives some hope that even for that code it does not apply. IANAL so I don't know what applies and doesn't. Worst case we have to go back to 2.0 kernels and apply only improvments that we know are safe, and 2.0 was pretty good. (not as good as the latest, but still good)
Second, BSD decendants have been proven in court to NOT be infringing decendants of UNIX (6 files were found infringing and removed and replaced). IBM has not worked (much?) on any BSD system so we can go to them. OpenBSD has been especcially paranoid about intellectualy property issues, plus they are based in Canada so the laws that apply are different anyway.
And finially for this to stick in court, SCO will probably have to point to some code and say "Joe wrote this after working with code we own", at which point linux will just re-write those sections, just like BSD did for the 6 infringing files. There are some difficulties here, but worst case for linux isn't that bad.
Re:Mirror in case it's slashdotted (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who cares what Linus thinks? (Score:2, Interesting)
You, sir, are an obvious troll!
I am a previous member of Mensa (but I am too smart to keep giving them my money). I sometimes use Linux at home on a PC that I built myself. I currently work as an electrical engineer in military avionics. And I believe in God and Jesus.
The very fact that you are so sure of your beliefs (or lack thereof) that you are entitled to attack other people who feel differently means you are guilty of the same type of narrow-mindedness that you probably feel Christians to (stereotypicaly) hold.
If you wish to discuss facts and/or opinions, I welcome it. However, please do not resort to insulting people who have done nothing to you.
I read this thread because I am interested in Linux, and Linus. Please leave discussions like this out of it. As far as I know, no church organizations have yet to sue IBM over Linux.
Re:The crux of the article (Score:4, Interesting)
First, Linus sometimes reverses himself. That is, he says, "I was wrong about XXXXX, and it's going into the kernel now." This happens a lot.
Second, Linus has a sense of humor about himself. He knows that he's good at what he does, but he never thinks he's the best or only.
Third, just because somebody disagrees with him, that doesn't mean that Linus calles that person an idiot. Or insult them. Or threaten to sue them, as Bernstein in particular does pretty frequently.
Linus didn't go off and found his own project because he made himself too unpleasant to the people with whom he previously worked... he did it because the work was interesting to him, and he didn't know that anybody else was doing it. (Though in fact the *BSDers were at the time.)