More Open Source FUD

Is Linux Doomed?

SCO Unix was once an industry leader in Unix. Microsoft made Xenix and we supported one site that used this character based operating system. Do not get me wrong, it was pretty good in its day, but that day was over long long ago.

If SCO does have a case against IBM, and if it ain't a vapour claim, then does the Linux world have that much to worry about? Somehow I can not see SCO having much right over the reworked Linux kernel, or much else.

Linux is not the same product as Unix. If parts of the Unix system are effectively public domain, they already were before Linux came along and popularised Unix for everybody. SCO's stand appears (to me) to be a bit like Ford claiming it invented the gearbox so all car manufacturers now owe it money.

SCO is attacking Linux because it can. It was not worth attacking Linux five years ago, so they wait until it would pay? The success of Linux should not be its downfall. SCO had plenty of opportunity to compete with LInux and in fact as Caldera, it did.

It is not hard to see why SCO got backing from Microsoft. Gee, it would be good for someone else to blow that pesky FREE operating system right out of the water.

Perhaps the thousands of programmers who have contributed to that which SCO sees as their property should claim their copyright back since is it not with the author that copyright rests?

It sure will be interesting when it comes to court. If there is damage to the Open Source community by stunting Unix sales by warning customers - then a Class Action by Open Source programmers against SCO may follow. SCO's statements can not be helping with sales or business decisions that have little to do with their claim.

All it would take is a few deals backed out of, and SCO could become the subject of a Class Action by the Unix Programmers of America, who supply Linux or FreeBSD systems to their clients, now sitting on the fence, not able to make decisions due to the pending action against IBM.

If IBM buy SCO, then the irony is, that IBM may face such Class actions as the owner of SCO. It is a mockery of business.

Who invented what?

The ownership and licencing of software is a relationship that has more rules per square bit of code than most. Lawyers, took a percentage of the growth from the IT megaboom of the nineties by inventing all sorts of Intellectual Property rights laws that seem to need to be tested in court.

Do the presence of licence agreements form an extended contract of the terms of use of a product because these words exist and a user inherently agrees to abide by them when signing up for a website or using a piece of software.

We most all agree to abide by the rules when we get onto the highway, so why not the information highway?

Because it has been under development and is still evolving into what it is. Unix for example is a hodge podge of software systems and is one of the most contributed to works of the art there is, hundreds and thousands of programmers have contributed their work into the monster.

And the different breeds of Unix now manifesting as Linux, or QNX or Irix, or AIX or Solaris all follow the basic concepts that have existed in the public domain (the works of Kernigan and Ritchie, for example) for quite some time, now.

The heart of SCO's claim against IBM, soon to be joined by Red Hat, and SuSE, is that code was stolen. The idea that an operating system consists of parts that are stolen when these parts were developed by Open Source programmers and SCO must wonder how much tighter they can hold this water, when it is about to leak into every aspect of their ownership.

It seems quite obvious that there is no need to steal Unix secrets. They were pubished a long time ago. Rewriting the Unix Kernel is a job best done from the ground up. Stealing code that was defined before the age of Object Oriented code is folly.

SCO seem to be phase I of the MS attack on the world of Unix. Wait, there will be more. A popular Linux antivirus product is added to the Microsoft decommissioning by aquisition list.

Wait a second, Linux is the preferred OS for many freelance developers. Windows may remain supreme in the hands of users, but not content with that, corporate software houses seek to monopolise the art.

They simply can not. Unix was largely developed with public funds, by a university. FreeBSD may not be affected by SCO and all Linux webmasters should be able to use that version of Linux without fear.

We should also use any version of Linux we can lay our hands on, SCO can not litgate against users. Red Hat will continue to be a preferred workstation OS, not SCO Unix, thanks very much. Even if Red Hat goes out of business there is still a huge installed base. SCO may just have lost its audience.