"What a difference a year makes," writes Pamela Jones, a.k.a. "PJ," in a one-year anniversary article just posted at groklaw.net.
"When we started," she continues, "all the headlines were saying that SCO was going to destroy Linux or at least make it cry. Now, looking around today, I see almost everyone predicting SCO's imminent doom instead. I think the truth, as usual, isn't in the headlines, and that it's somewhere in between those two extremes."
Rather than steal PJ's thunder, LinuxWorld urges you to go over to Groklaw at once and enjoy the anniversary piece first hand. We'll give just the tiniest sampler, to give the spirit of Jones's thoughtful prose, in case you are new to it:
"Like I said, a year can make a big difference. One thing that has not changed is Groklaw's view. From day one, I wrote that the case was flimsy, and that the GPL would stand effectively through the storm. I don't think the legal fight is done. Or the FUD fight. But that is still true. I was reading yesterday about the history of UNIX, in connection with the UNIX timeline project, and I came across a 1999 article comparing "Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX", and how extraordinary it was to see, particularly in the list of referenced articles at the end, that Microsoft FUD against Linux was largely the same years ago. Folks with a lot of money can be very annoying. Without the money, their arguments would have withered and died by now, because they make no actual sense."
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Carl wrote: Perhaps
Fortune should spawn a
sister publication and
name it MisFortune.
Darl could be on the
first cover.
rifftide wrote: SCO
doesn't have any patents.
I think they're asserting
rights to code that was
added to derivative
versions of System V by
their licensees. But
their story changes every
few weeks or so. Re
"post-SCO", I'd be
interested to see what
Groklaw morphs into if
and when the SCO case
settles down. Maybe
they'll perform a similar
service (analysis of
legal documents and
courtroom proceedings)
for other IP property
disputes with widespread
repercussions in the tech
industry.
Some are already saying
that SCO may be the tip
of the iceberg as far as
FOSS IP problems are
concerned, even as SCO's
case seems to be
declining. (See the
current issue of Fortune
magazine, with Darl
McBride on the cover,
unfortunately not
available online except
to paid subscribers). Of
course, one can argue
that proprietary software
s...
Quezztion wrote: I wonder
what will happen to the
patents that SCO
allegedly owns should
they go bust or get
bought out.
What, say, if Microsoft
were to buy them all, as
they seem to be in the
habit of doing? I think
they would be a SCO worse
than SCO.
SCOX@$15 wrote: SCO
bought UNIXWare and the
System V Agency from
Novell, they certainly
can sell it to someone
(with Novell's approval).
There's still millions of
deployed SCO UNIX boxes
out there (in every
McDonalds and many other
major retail chains), the
product is worth
something to somebody.
My guess is that System V
licencing goes back to
Novell (they get 95%
gross anyway), and
UNIXWare & OpenServer go
to Computer Associates or
some other graveyard.
animats wrote: Groklaw
has done a great job in
dispelling Darl's FUD.
Nobody takes SCO's
threats seriously any
more. Of course, Cravath
and IBM are doing the
heavy work, but nobody
would notice without
Groklaw. It's not at all
common for pre-trial
motions to be followed
this closely.
The remaining question
for SC
OX is "how low can it
go"? Except for that bump
in early April, when SCO
tried, unsuccessfully, a
stock buyback to prop up
the price, the decline
from 14 to 5 has been
close to linear. If you
just project the line
out, SCOX goes to zero
around late summer. It
probably won't go to
penny stock levels for a
while, though; they have
some cash left. But with
no licensing revenue and
a huge legal burn rate,
they can't go on for all
that long.
...
anonAnonanon wrote:
Groklaw has only worked
so well because (1)
SCO/Darl are so
ridiculously wrong and
have no case, and (2)
Everyone in the Linux
world is unified against
SCO.
Point of Fact wrote: The
funny thing is that PJ
doesn't actually live
anywhere near IBM. She
just got a PO box there
to register her domain
with...
That, and she had 2-3
different hosts for
Groklaw as it expanded,
not just ibiblio.org
which runs on IBM
computers
Moreover, I seem to
remember that the IBM
computers were donated
well before she started
Groklaw, if I have my
timeline straight
ShinmaWa wrote: Ever
since PJ was hired by
OSRM, Groklaw's focus has
changed dramatically.
Early on it was "just the
facts" about the case.
Lately it has become more
and more of a GPL zealot
site, that tends to
attack anyone and
anything that is not wild
about the GPL, including
non-GPL open source!
Addendum wrote: There is
one disturbing Groklaw
trend that bothers me; it
goes like this. It starts
when a self-proclaimed IP
holder, or an analyst, or
a reporter says something
absurd or uninformed or
uneducated or something
in bad faith about Linux
- this quote, article,
statement, etc... then
makes it onto Groklaw's
toplevel story, a sense
of outrage and injustice
is built up, worst-case
scenarios are explored,
and then there is a
constructive,
facts-based,
breaking-down of the
rhetoric. That's all
fine, in and of itself,
but the way I see it, all
you need to do is break
down the facts once and
it becomes obvious that
the situation is not
quite as bad as you can
make it out to be if you
freak out about it in
your own mind. It's
another implementation of
Hades to have to do this
every day for the rest of
eternity. I ...
kardar wrote: Groklaw is
cool, and some of the
people that post there
are some very experienced
programmers - I have
learned quite a few
things from reading the
posts over there.
Novell says it's going to
'simplify' pricing and
discounts on SLES for
mainframes for the rest
of the year. That means
it's going to cut prices
by 33%-47% by offering a
three-year subscription
for the price of a
two-year subscription or
a five-year subscription
for the price of a three
Two of the biggest
launches in Rich Internet
Application history took
place in 2007/2008 when
Adobe launched AIR 1.0 in
February '08 and
Microsoft launched
Silverlight (September
'07). At the 6th
International AJAXWorld
RIA Conference & Expo in
October SYS-CON Events is
delighted to be
Xandros acquired
Linspire's Linux assets
after Linspire changed
its name to Digital
Cornerstone. With the
acquisition Xandros CEO
Andy Typaldos has been
telling the press,
'Xandros is already the
third-largest Linux
company in the world, and
... we may already be the
largest private Li
Red Hat announced
advancements that extend
the Company's Linux
Automation strategy by
providing expanded
capabilities and
incorporating broadened
community involvement for
secure management of both
users and systems across
virtual and physical
enterprise
infrastructures.
Novell announced
Invitrogen has selected
SUSE Linux Enterprise as
the core operating
platform to standardize
and virtualize the
company's servers. A
global provider of
essential life science
technologies for
research, production and
diagnostics, Invitrogen
conducts business in more
tha
On Monday, nine days
ahead of his sentencing
on July 9 for the murder
of his wife, William
DuBois, the lawyer for
ace Linux programmer Hans
Reiser, filed a brief
with the court saying -
for the very first time
since this case began -
that under penalty of
perjury that he think
Reiser '
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Novell says it's going to
'simplify' pricing and
discounts on SLES for
mainframes for the rest
of the year. That means
it's going to cut prices
by 33%-47% by offering a
three-year subscription
for the price of a
two-year subscription or
a five-year subscription
for the price of a three
Two of the biggest
launches in Rich Internet
Application history took
place in 2007/2008 when
Adobe launched AIR 1.0 in
February '08 and
Microsoft launched
Silverlight (September
'07). At the 6th
International AJAXWorld
RIA Conference & Expo in
October SYS-CON Events is
delighted to be
On Monday, nine days
ahead of his sentencing
on July 9 for the murder
of his wife, William
DuBois, the lawyer for
ace Linux programmer Hans
Reiser, filed a brief
with the court saying -
for the very first time
since this case began -
that under penalty of
perjury that he think
Reiser '
