It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was, in short, Linux time.
This past year, Linux has shown that it’s got the stuff to make it in the enterprise. But you don’t have to take my word for it: IBM has embraced Linux as their business operating system, and major software vendors like Oracle have taken Linux to heart (or whatever passes for a heart in Ellison’s empire… but I digress). Of course, it was also the year that SCO decided to sue IBM (over Big Blue’s use of SCO’s Unix code in AIX and Linux), to sue Linux users, and to attack the GPL.
Yet despite all of the sound and fury of SCO’s seemingly endless attacks against Linux, most users agree with Linux founder Linus Torvalds that SCO “is smoking crack.” I doubt they’re smoking crack — but they might be hitting their own stash. I think SCO’s leaders have convinced themselves that they’re in the right, and that they should take all legal means necessary to try to make their case.
So, is SCO right? And perhaps more importantly, can SCO convince corporate customers that they’re right?
As for the first question, no, SCO isn’t in the right. I’ve written myself to death on the subject, so to sum up: SCO’s Unix intellectual property (IP) claims are build on sand, not rock. As for their assault on the GPL… Oh, please! What can you say about…
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