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SCO said Wednesday that it has filed subpoenas with the U.S. District Court in Utah, targeting six different individuals or organizations. Those include Novell; Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel; Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation

Wow, and I didn't think SCO could get any weirder. How can they possibly hope to benefit their case by subpoening Linus and RMS? Linus will just wanna see the code without signing their NDA, and Richard will probably gaze at them and cause them the stare crying.

I don't know. Maybe they'll get them in a room, tie them to a chair with their eyes propped open like in A Clockwork Orange and force them to read their code without signing their NDA. Then any future development of Free/Open Source Software will fall under SCO's control because they were influenced by SCO's source. Things couldn't get any weirder.

Matt Damon is Darl McBride in "Holding Up Hollywood", this fall on HBO.

So, you are suggesting that the SEC should make an administrative decision while the matter is pending in federal court?

Nope. But after SCO's case is dropped and SCO's remains are divided up between the IBM and Red Hat countersuits, then it might be a good time to take another look at the millions of dollars of SCO stock that it's executives and majority owners have been selling, at prices which have been inflated thousands of percent by their own hype. The SCO/Canopy plan, "Fraudulently squeeze as much money out of investors as possible while destroying the company's long term viability" shouldn't even be legal, much less encouraged financially like it has been so far.

SCO will of course be sued by their stockholders.

Or their major investors, if RBC and Deutsch aren't smart enough to get out before the bubble pops, and if the "they're front men for Microsoft!" conspiracy theories are baseless (which I think they are - Microsoft has already been pumping millions of dollars into SCO publically, so apparantly they don't feel they need to keep such funding a secret).

An article on CNet news.com suggests that "Open Source" is catching on in China.

Now, how many people live in China? Computerworld has an article on how Red Flag GNU/Linux which I think is widely used in China, is now going international.

A majority of people might be stupid for a short period of time, but I don't think the majority of people will be stupid in the majority of time, at least not when it comes to wasting money for nothing. Now I know that some will argue that you get some value from Windows, I wont deny that, if they think they get value, they *get* value, either imagined value, real value or both. My point being that whatever you can do with any commercial program, you can do with (potential) free software, and you can do it freely!

--
/Spam .

An article on CNet news.com suggests that "Open Source" is catching on in China.

Now, how many people live in China? Computerworld has an article on how Red Flag GNU/Linux which I think is widely used in China, is now going international.

A majority of people might be stupid for a short period of time, but I don't think the majority of people will be stupid in the majority of time, at least not when it comes to wasting money for nothing. Now I know that some will argue that you get some value from Windows, I wont deny that, if they think they get value, they *get* value, either imagined value, real value or both. My point being that whatever you can do with any commercial program, you can do with (potential) free software, and you can do it freely!

--
/Spam .

Folks, all that we've worked for and on these last couple of decades is being fiercely threatened. The rights and freedoms that RMS and the FSF have sought to protect are the targets. The SCO thing may seem outlandish, but this is the U.S. legal system we're talking about, anything can/does happen. The heavies are loaded for bear - the MSFT meat puppets like Darl McBride know they have a shot at destroying our community, to guarantee the survival of the proprietary "way" as the dominant mode of business in IT.

Think I'm just ranting? Perhaps. But have you noticed how much good press the monolithic vaporware Longhorn is soaking up? Have you read stories by people in power (who don't get "it") talking about how the whole Unix/Linux process is too complicated to succeed long-term?

Still, I hate the logo itself. I look at it and I don't feel anything. I haven't played Life since I had a DOS-only computer and downloaded a version from my local BBS. :-)

Certainly, there needs to be a more democratic process for this, but there is room for such a thing. We (the Open Source'ers, the Free Software'ers, the BSD'ers, the Perl'ers, etc.) are all comrades-in-arms these days.

Then there's Linux/BSD/QNX + GNU. All of which have Wintel clobbered for ease of maintenance (including stability and security) and at least tied for ease of use.

More interestingly, cities like Turku and Munich got large discounts for even mentioning that they were considering investigating Linux. The mention that Microsoft cannot give discounts anymore implies that they've run out of money to do so. Shrinking revenues as well as accumulated fines and penalties could easily account for this, even when cancelled products and services are acconuted for.

Sun may still be alive but I'll bet on above poster's 5 years. Perhaps the best description of the Sun's current state is given by Nicholas Petreley here.

Do we really need another bash-Microsoft article

No, you're right. We should leave poor MS alone. They're obviously confused. After all, this is the same company who during the antitrust trial, said they couldn't share their source code with anyone due to national security concerns if the code got into the wrong hands.

Then later (2002) they told a federal court that sharing information with competitors could damage national security. And even said the code was so flawed it could not be safely disclosed.

Then in early 2003, they agreed to share the source code with China.

So it seems clear to me that they are confused and just need our sympathy. After all I'm sure they wouldn't intentionally risk our national security nor lie about the risks of sharing their source on the stand in federal court.

Given the response by telemarketers against the FTCs Do Not Call List, how long before the first lawsuits are filed against AT&T?

Security hole hits patched Internet Explorer
Microsoft Recalls Botched Browser Security Patch
MS security patch slows XP systems to a crawl
Microsoft withdraws faulty server patch
Microsoft replaces, broadens faulty Exchange patch
Microsoft fixes another faulty patch
Faulty Patch Leaves IE Open to Attack
More patching problems for Microsoft
Minor glitch in Win2K patch

Security hole hits patched Internet Explorer
Microsoft Recalls Botched Browser Security Patch
MS security patch slows XP systems to a crawl
Microsoft withdraws faulty server patch
Microsoft replaces, broadens faulty Exchange patch
Microsoft fixes another faulty patch
Faulty Patch Leaves IE Open to Attack
More patching problems for Microsoft
Minor glitch in Win2K patch

More things that I'm sure people will talk about: The Dells are 1U and 2U boxes designed for rack enclosures meaning they'll be more heat and power effecient not to mention they take up about 1/3 the physical space as the enormous PowerMac G5.

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/sto ry/0,10801,66204,00.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=htt p://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q 266/0/80.ASP&NoWebContent=1

I vote for collusion. Granted, two of the links I included discuss only flaws in IE 6.0 which aren't likely to be exploited on a server, but you never know what the customer may do. Finding critical flaws like this in just 5 months doesn't look too good. Try googling before you speak next time.

As far as I can tell, the big change that Microsoft made for the Windows Server 2003 release is that it ships with more services closed. If users want them, they have to open them up. This, inherently, makes the OS more secure, and all it does is follow the advice that security experts have been giving for the last several years. I highly doubt that Windows Server 2003 is some monster rewrite of everything, and I would fully expect that most of the same exploits waiting to be discovered in Windows 2000 are also present in Server 2003, along with some new ones.

Ballmer: "we are 100% focused on building products and technologies that are safe and secure"
-- January 2002

Ballmer: "security is tattooed on our brains
-- April 2003

Nash: "Computer security is without question the number one priority for the company"
-- October 2003

"If Ballmer told me that my pants were on fire AND I smelled smoke AND I felt my ass getting warm I still would not believe him. "
-- Unknown

With all of this attention to security can someone explain why there are still over 30 vulnerabilities in IE6, a piece of software that was released over two years ago?

Ballmer: "we are 100% focused on building products and technologies that are safe and secure"
-- January 2002

Ballmer: "security is tattooed on our brains
-- April 2003

Nash: "Computer security is without question the number one priority for the company"
-- October 2003

"If Ballmer told me that my pants were on fire AND I smelled smoke AND I felt my ass getting warm I still would not believe him. "
-- Unknown

With all of this attention to security can someone explain why there are still over 30 vulnerabilities in IE6, a piece of software that was released over two years ago?

This threat is akin to Microsoft threatening to sue someone who discovers and publicizes a Windows OS security hole.

Oh, you mean like Dan Geer?

"To be successful in the business world today, you absolutely have to incorporate some sort of technology."

Well, not necessarily to the level most would have you believe. While the exception may prove the rule, this savings and loan gets by on the bare minimum and succeeds in a highly competitive business. In short, it's the business process that matters most, not the technology behind it.

I see people say its canned - oh well.

Here is a link from 2000 if you are interested.

I wonder if Computer World will drop their rankings in the "Top 100 Places to Work in IT"
Computer World PDF?

This isn't bloody insightful it's ignorant. spamhaus.org is the website for an RBL & you can /. it all you like it shouldn't affect the RBL. what the original message meant was that the RBL run by spamhaus is under heavy DOS attack from parties unknown. this has brought down other RBL sites like SPEWS, monkeys.com & osirusoft which means that ISPs that were using them to filter out spam servers or open relays are now MUCH less protected then they were before. the tide of spam is rising.

the spammers are attacking these lists sequentially & slowly destroying them. this has absolutely nothing to do with a webserver running at spamhaus.org. that doesn't mean we should try to bring their webserver down of course...

the interesting bit is whether or not MAPS is being attacked. since MAPS is now charging for their RBL services i would imagine that sort of attack would provoke legal responses which, as far as i can tell, these previous attacks haven't.

chris

According to a story in ComputerWorld, the contract with HP disallows changes to the source! Isn't this contrary to the GPL?

You're sure about that? From another article on the same announcement:

Reaction from Lindon, Utah-based SCO was swift: The company portrayed the HP move as a tacit acknowledgment that SCO's recent legal maneuvering is proper.

"HP's actions this morning reaffirm the fact that enterprise end users running Linux are exposed to legal risks," SCO said in a statement. "Rather than deny the existence of substantial structural problems with Linux, as many open source leaders have done, HP is acknowledging that issues exist and is attempting to be responsive to its customers' request for relief. HP's actions are driving the Linux industry towards a licensing program. In other words, Linux is not free.

"We are gratified that, alone among the major Linux vendors, HP has taken a strong stand to protect their customers by indemnifying them against possible legal difficulties stemming from their use of Linux," the SCO statement said. "We believe that this action signals that HP recognizes their Linux users could, in fact, face litigation because of copyright violations and intellectual property problems within Linux. As a company that strongly supports its customers, HP has done something about this."

I especially like the part: "Rather than deny the existence of substantial structural problems with Linux, as many open source leaders have done, HP is acknowledging that issues exist". That's just classic. In reality, HP is doing the opposite, and stating that they believe there's no problem, and that they're willing to put their own legal muscle behind the assertion. If HP believed there were problems with Linux, I'd think that they'd rather just drop it as soon as possible, rather than open themselves up to legal liability.

Then again, lets go over the facts. Red Hat has no right to believe their likely to be sued by SCO, according to SCO's recent legal filings, yet Red Hat is both a user and a distributor of Linux, and we are told that all users of Linux will be liable to SCO for damages from the misuse of SCO's copyrights and trade secrets. We're told that vendors should provide indemnification to users if they truly believe there's no IP problems with Linux, and the moment one does, SCO uses it as proof that there's IP problems with Linux. They tell us, their lawsuit with IBM is about copyright, trade secrets and patents, when their lawsuit is more about contract law than any of the IP laws. They announce they'll send out 1,500 invoices, and never do. They get "disappointed" when Red Hat decides they don't wish to blindly pay licensing fees to SCO, and try to get a declaratory judgement from the courts instead of being haunted by the spectre of a SCO lawsuit for years to come. I just want to know one thing -- Why is anyone in the press still listening to them when they obviously can't get their story straight?

I think These guys have them beat.

Haven't heard about any in Alaska, but there was a 72 mile link in San Diego, which, by the way, is 115 Kilometers.

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/s tory/0,10801,75830,00.html

Your company's website does almost nothing to explain what it is your company does.

It plays games with stock and venture capital in order to cash in on scams like the current SCOX stock bubble. This does perform the economically useful activity of taking money out of the hands of incompetent people, but unfortunately it just puts the money into the hands of unethical people instead.

This is a growing issue at the moment. Initially the US ask for data as a security measure and the European Union complied. Recently the US has stepped back from it's pledge to only use the data for security checks. The US doesn't want to give assurances that the data wont be used for other purposes.

This looks like it may escalate. There are suggestions that european airlines may loose landing lights and face fines. This could lead to a tit for tat response. Airline war anyone?

See this article in computerworld.com and hi pakistan has info on the US threat to deny landing rights while out-law.com has news on the EU response.

Can I post one of the FUD emails? No. (Besides, it was full of HTML.) But I can point you at this Computerworld story on Sun's attempt to "drop the FUD bomb" as George Clinton might put it.

A quote from the Wall Street Journal ad, as noted in a Linuxworld story: "Unfortunately, our friends in Blue have a problem with licensing contracts that could make things very expensive for anyone running AIX."

Ah! Found the original ad on Sun's own web site! (PDF format)

Then: "You have to get online before you get Amazoned by a competitor"

Now: "You have to go offshore before your competitors do".

And naturally, you've got all the Gartner group whores doing sloppy seconds duty on this, probably using ginned up happy-talk figures that bear no relation to reality.

Case in point: this story at ComputerWorld, part of a whored-out "buyer's guide" to offshoring.

The happy-talk marketing-heavy Computerworld "report" hypes savings of 40%. The CIO article says 20% is more realistic.

And of course Computerworld is hyping the inevitability: "As one IT director at a multibillion-dollar global electronics company put it, "When the train is coming down the tracks, it doesn't do you any good to stand on them." "

That could be a clip from a 1998 article on e-commerce. Or a 1992 article about CD-ROM multimedia. Or any number of other things that they've treated the same way, full of 'information' from the likes of Gartner, and which have turned out to be bullshit.

Please write to mitch_betts@computerworld.com, features editor at computerworld, and tear him a new asshole.

Here's another article I just read this morning at ComputerWorld:
IT's Global Itinerary: Offshore Outsourcing Is Inevitable. An interesting read, and they do make it seem pretty inevitable.

It is ok bacause Homeland Sercurity buying all Microsoft the worm and virus writers will be caught in the world largest honeypot. All those nasity agents will only be running around trying to find ways to keep their equipment running.

Darl bashing is even more fun now that we know he actually reads Slashdot! The Linuxworld piece links to a Computer World Interview with McBride. In the last question, Darl admits that he reads our rants on Slashdot and it hurts his feelings:

Q: How do you feel about apparently being reviled in the open-source community due to SCO's legal fight? Does it bother you?
A:It does and it doesn't. We're at the center of a hurricane. Clearly, in this case we have one set of forces here that are pro-SCO, and I've characterized them as the silent majority. Then there's the other side that is anything but silent, and they're some of the most boisterous enemies or antagonists that one could ever hope for. You think pro sports stars have got it bad as they're driving home after the game when they've gone 1 for 10 and missed five three-pointers. They think their lives are bad from the sound bites on sports radio. They need to come over here and read Slashdot. That part of it is not the most exciting part of your life.

So Darl, if you are reading this: fuck you! We know your evidence is bogus, we are on to your stock scams (e.g. the Vultus "acquisition"), and we laugh at your suggestions that we cooperate to "monetize Linux". Give it up now, before we finally convince the SEC to launch an official investigation.

-Fyodor
Concerned about your network security? Try the free Nmap Security Scanner

I don't believe that the SCO claims have any real merit. But this article seemed to be making a big deal out of Darl McBride saying in his Q&A that he didn't previously know that the code in question had been contributed by SGI. So far as I can see he didn't say anything of the kind.

"In this Q&A, CEO McBride states, 'Well, at SCO Forum, there were some folks that came out and basically sniffed out some of the [disputed System V] code we were showing and [concluded] that it emanated from SGI.' That this code "emanated" from SGI was news to SCO."

I don't see how you can get from Darl's quote to the conclusion that the source being SGI was news to him. All he says is that people outside of SCO worked out where the code came from, which is why he's commenting on it publicly. Nothing there implies either way whether he knew about it before.

Once you remove this strange interpretation of his quote there doesn't seem to be anything left to base the article on.

There are plenty of legitimate flaws in SCO's case. This doesn't seem to be one of them.

Actually, Darl invented the internet. That's what I heard.

(He's a slashdot reader according to this. So hi -- McDarling-to-be!)

SCO isn't Nazi Germany, people!

"Springtime for SCO"
from Mel Brooks' The Thieving Whore Bastards CEO's

SCO was having trouble, what a sad, sad story
Needed a new leader to restore its former glory
Where oh where was he? Where could that man be?
We looked around, and then we found, the man for you and me,
And now it's ...

Springtime for McBride and SCO,
Utah is happy and gay.
We're marching to a faster pace,
Look out, here comes that smug Mcbride face.

Springtime for McBride and Utah,
Winter for Linus and Eric S Raymond.
Springtime for McBride and Utah,
Come on, Utah, go into your dance ...

I was born in Salt Lake City, and that is why they call me P Diddy.
Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the SCO party.

Springtime for McBride and Utah
(SCO Unix box beeps twice)
Goose-step's the new step today
(SCO Unix box gun fires)
NDA's falling from the skies again,
(NDA's falls and explodes)
Utah is on the rise again

Springtime for McBride and SCO
System V are sailing once more
[woman's voice]: "Well! Talk about bad source!"
Springtime for Mcbride and SCO
Means ... that ... soon we'll be going ...
We've got to be going ...
You know we'll be going to ... Court!

From ComputerWorld: "It's like a guy who sees the keys in the car in a parking lot, opens the door, takes the keys out and hides them under a mat and leaves a note," he [Mark Rasch, former head of the computer crime unit at the U.S. Department of Justice] said. "It's not a valid defense." What a horrible comparison- personally, I'd thank any such Good Samaritan

I don't develop in Java, so I don't know. But I have read that some people apparently think the Mac is a pretty good platform. Interesting that Gosling would still be interested in the Mac, even after the features that you mentioned, neh? And he presumably has access to a pretty wide range of machines.

Before you say it--I didn't read this to say that Gosling has thrown out every piece of gear that doesn't have an Apple on it. But if he uses a powerbook as a regular machine in the mix, that's interesting enough for me. Think he might see something about Java on OS X that you don't?

Funny, many people ragged on Theo de Raadt when he said "I try to convince myself that our grant means a half of a cruise missile doesn't get built." Yes these scientists are being painted as super-duper people with minty-fresh breath because they seemingly have some of the same convictions.

Since at least August, SCO have been floating the idea of sending invoices to Linux users. It's even been reported, seemingly incorrectly, back in August, that SCO was beginning to send invoices. The invoice story has been taken up with a vengence in the last few days, for example, here, here and here.

SCO Australia says the invoicing plan doesn't "ring true" and contradicts very recent strategy discussions. Unfortunately, SCO USA's Blake Stowell, doesn't seem to have yet responded to SCO Australia's request for clarification. SCO Australia also says that they're unsure about the question of invoices being sent in the US even though there are reports on the web [examples: here, here and here] about just such a thing being planned.

Since at least August, SCO have been floating the idea of sending invoices to Linux users. It's even been reported, seemingly incorrectly, back in August, that SCO was beginning to send invoices. The invoice story has been taken up with a vengence in the last few days, for example, here, here and here.

SCO Australia says the invoicing plan doesn't "ring true" and contradicts very recent strategy discussions. Unfortunately, SCO USA's Blake Stowell, doesn't seem to have yet responded to SCO Australia's request for clarification. SCO Australia also says that they're unsure about the question of invoices being sent in the US even though there are reports on the web [examples: here, here and here] about just such a thing being planned.

Since at least August, SCO have been floating the idea of sending invoices to Linux users. It's even been reported, seemingly incorrectly, back in August, that SCO was beginning to send invoices. The invoice story has been taken up with a vengence in the last few days, for example, here, here and here.

SCO Australia says the invoicing plan doesn't "ring true" and contradicts very recent strategy discussions. Unfortunately, SCO USA's Blake Stowell, doesn't seem to have yet responded to SCO Australia's request for clarification. SCO Australia also says that they're unsure about the question of invoices being sent in the US even though there are reports on the web [examples: here, here and here] about just such a thing being planned.

Since at least August, SCO have been floating the idea of sending invoices to Linux users. It's even been reported, seemingly incorrectly, back in August, that SCO was beginning to send invoices. The invoice story has been taken up with a vengence in the last few days, for example, here, here and here.

SCO Australia says the invoicing plan doesn't "ring true" and contradicts very recent strategy discussions. Unfortunately, SCO USA's Blake Stowell, doesn't seem to have yet responded to SCO Australia's request for clarification. SCO Australia also says that they're unsure about the question of invoices being sent in the US even though there are reports on the web [examples: here, here and here] about just such a thing being planned.

Here's a link to that article. Why didn't you just link it in the first place?

• Slashdot for first making me a sco-story addict, and then leaving me for hours, sometimes even days without sco story.
• ezines for reporting in favour of SCO, and thus spreading the slander
• US government, for not sending nukes to Lindon, Utah.
• SCO, for not sending me an invoice (I Want One Too!)
• Myself, for replying to an SCO-slashdot post.

BTW, Darl, I'm looking for a new job. Considering that I have no legal experience whatsoever, can think of loads of silly lawsuits in under 5 minutes (see above), I think I'll fit in perfectly with your legal team.

.., but things are changing real quick.

Well for the user, KDE is easy to use, at least relative to Windows XP. I think OS X still has both beat.

For the admin, I'd have to say RedHat, Mandrake, and SuSe have won hands down ease of installation and configuration. Especially after watching the trouble the co-located department has installing and configuring Windows XP. Again, OS X has them all beat, at least on the desktop. Debian seems to be the easiest on the server.

You're quite right about using Linux at work. I used it for a few years at work and then realized it was better than what was on my home computers (Windows) so I upgraded to Linux at home, too. At least on my ix86 machines. I've used Debian and Yellowdog nicely on PPC and G4 machines. Unfortunately, for the six months OS X has turned me into one of those smug mac fans.

For a daily dose of those needing a clue-stick:

http://www.computerworld.com/sharky

Bookmark it people! Put it on your daily reading list! A new story every day!

You make good points about cost effectiveness but one of your paragraphs made me laugh:

I'd still earn a lot more than the typical offshore worker due to excellent English skills. All I would need to do is learn how to communicate with them and I'd be in demand in the same way the Los Angeles auto mechanic head is. He typically gives instructions to the hispanics who do the real work. No different from my scenerio.

English is easy. If excellent "English skills" bought you anything, Indian English majors would be making the big bucks. What they value is programming quality. Your image of being the American who is eagerly made chief by the illeterate natives is delusion. You would be as welcome in India as detroit autoworkers in Japan.

From the first post's linked Computer World article, we learn that dear old Darl has decided to call their brand new, ground breaking product OpenServer Legend. Huh? What the fuck are they smoking over there in Utah? And they reckon IBM is giving out the happy Kool Aid... This makes no sense at all. They've got two products, one even more useless than the other and they put their weight behind the useless one! OpenServer is the worst possible OS one could install on an x86 machine these days! I'd sooner install Windows (or Microsoft's flagship OS, DOS 2.11) than OpenServer. The person quoted in the linked story saying that they've been testing their apps on NT machines due to worries about having to move away from OpenServer should be shot repeatedly in the groin with a nailgun for both moving from a former UNIX to NT and for saying that SCO have good things coming. Has this "person" not heard of Solaris? Or Linux? Or FreeBSD? Or OpenBSD? Or NetBSD? Or DOS 2.11??? All of the mentioned OSes have one thing in common - they are infinitely better UNIXes than that crap pile called OpenServer. Having to support it still causes me nightmares. So, what's the next UnixWare release going to be called? How about "UnixWare puncture repair kit shitfaced cockmaster"?

SCO didn't say before they were "associated with MIT". SCO actually said they were at the MIT math department.

Quoting from http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/gove rnment/legalissues/story/0,10801,81973,00.html

SCO was able to uncover the alleged violations by hiring three teams of experts, including a group from the MIT math department, to analyze the Linux and Unix source code for similarities. "All three found several instances where our Unix source code had been found in Linux," said a SCO spokesman.

And this is what MIT said http://www-tech.mit.edu/V123/N33/33sco.33n.html