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Is http://www.informationweek.com/article/getArticle. jhtml?articleID=17601394

Enron, Worldcom, Tycho, Parmalat, Microsoft.

The faster I ran on this thing, the faster my compile would go. I'd buy it.

Come on people! It wasn't that long ago that most computing devices were hand cranked. Take this example from the 1920s. Possibly the world's finest mechanical calculator, the Curta, was sold from 1947 to 1973.

About thirty years ago my father worked a summer job as a cashier in a liquor store. The cash register was electromechanical--under normal circumstances, it ran off ordinary wall current. This was a rural community and power outages were not uncommon. When the electricity was off, cashiers could crank a handle for each addition operation. My dad asserts that the mechanism was rather stiff, and a few hours of cranking through purchases was quite a workout.

Of course, if you really want a hand-cranked computer, you should talk to this guy.

"Microsoft has broken some laws, too, yes."

Why is that OK with you? Why is somebody who breaks laws a better person then somebody who did not break laws? You judge ellison harshly even though he has never been charged with a crime and you want to give Bill gates a pass even though he has been convicted.

"But I haven't heard anything about outright stealing technology;"

In that case you have your head buried in the sand. Sendo, Priceline , and Stac are just a few of the victims of theft of Intellectual property by MS. I am not talking about copying applications here I am talking about out and out stealing of technology and breaking contracts. Here is a quote from one of the articles I linked to.
During one of those meetings, Priceline said Microsoft CEO Bill Gates told Priceline founder Jay Walker that he wasn't going to let patent infringement claims stand in his way.

According to a Priceline press release announcing the suit, "Mr. Gates went on to say that many other companies were suing Microsoft for patent infringement and that priceline.com could, in effect, get in line."

Further down the article.
This is not the first time a company has claimed that Microsoft stole its technology after meeting to discuss a business relationship.

In December 1998, Goldtouch Technologies sued the software giant, saying Microsoft illegally copied its design for an ergonomic mouse after the two companies had discussed the product.

Other companies who've sued Microsoft for patent infringement include Eolas Technologies, which claimed earlier this year that the Redmond, Wash., giant infringed upon a plug-in patent. And in 1994, a jury ordered Microsoft to settle with Stac Electronics Inc. for violating a data-compression patent.

MS has a history of sleazy behavior like this.

"Give me more information, and then I can make a proper judgment."

I have provided you with a few links, google can provide much more.

"But I'm not really arguing that they didn't do those things"

Why not? If they did lie, cheat and steal is it OK with you? Is that moral? If I could prove to you that MS lied cheated and stole would you agree with me that they are immoral? My guess is that you don't think there is anything wrong with lying, cheating and stealing as long it's done in the name of making money.

"I asked those questions in order to contrast against Philip Morris's own violations of mores and laws, in order to show that there's complexity in the issues."

It's not that complex. Both Phillip Morris and MS are immoral companies doing immoral things. You can argue about the degree of immorality but that's a hollow argument. that's like saying one mass murderer is less immoral then another one because he killed less people.

"But are they being immoral? What are they being immoral about? Destroying other people's things? I guess in itself that's immoral."

Yes they are being immoral. Yes destroying other people's property is immoral and illegal.

"But are you trying to say there's absolutely no justification for such things? There's never a time when destroying somebody else's things is NOT immoral?"

I never said and I'd appreciate it if you did not put words into my mouth. There may very well be circumstances when it's OK to destroy other people's property. You keep trying to muddy up the issue by throwing up these stupid straw man arguments but I am not going to bite.

"Why is it so hard for you to believe that morality and ethics are a complicated issue? Countless people have struggled with these issues for thousands of years because it's so complicated, yet you seem to think it's black and white.'

It's not hard for me to believe th

I was just going to point that out. Maybe they are only ranking relational databases and didn't know what to do with your object oriented database.

For those unfamiliar with BaBar the project uses Objectivity. Here's an article about it.

In the meantime Gartner: Longhorn Delays Will Affect WindowsThe IT advisory firm expects the operating system to be released between late 2006 and mid-2008, but that the release could be delayed even more.

My suggestion. Get OSX Panther today and stop dreaming about tomorrow.

Legal research and other back-office work carried out at law firms may be among the next set of white-collar jobs to move offshore in big numbers. According to a recent study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, legal assistants and paralegals working in India on behalf of U.S. law firms earn, on average, between $6 and $8 per hour. That's about one-third of what their counterparts in the United States are paid.

Some of the largest law firms in the country are looking to take advantage of that discrepancy. John Halvey, who heads the technology finance and outsourcing group at New York-based Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy, says the 137-year-old firm is considering moving some back-office functions to India. In doing so, Halvey said at an offshore-outsourcing conference Monday in New York, the firm would simply be mirroring the behavior of its international business clients. "I can't think of a recent deal we did that didn't have an offshore component," Halvey said.

Darl McBride: The Most Dangerous Man in the Technology Industry(1). There was an article in the Nov. 24, 2003 issue of InformationWeek.

People PAY Gartner for conclusions like that?

Yes, they do indeed.

The article in question claims that 540,000 jobs were lost in 2002. Hmm... let's say the average high-tech worker makes US$75,000 (it's probably closer to US$40,000). What's 540,000 jobs times US$75,000? My my, it's US$40.5 billion.

By not spending its cash hoard, presumably on purchases, acquisitions, etc. in the high-tech industry, Microsoft has cost the equivalent, or perhaps literally, all the lost techs job suffered in 2002.

The scenario is a little more disturbing when more realistic numbers are plugged in. 540,000 jobs times US$40,000 (a more realistic avg. salary) is US$21.6 billion. In other words, Microsoft has twice again enough cash to more than make up for all lots tech jobs of 2002. Sobering, especially as their profits increase.

While the numbers above may be somewhat dubious, what is unavailably clear is this: Microsoft sitting on its huge pile of cash can do nothing good for the industry.

Can SCO put off giving IBM any substantial evidence of infringement for that long?

If SCO waits too long to shake down some specific Linux user, their own hand might get called in the interim.

The countersuits could easily push SCO's market cap into negative territory. At which point any of the fools - err - investors holding worthless SCO stock are going to be asking Darl and the other insiders who sold SCO high earlier for some answers.

Information week has an article from Nov. 3, 2003 noting that 38% of Gartner's shares are owned by Microsoft, Oracle, Dell and a few other major players. All of whom would presumably benefit from what Gartner has to "report" about their respective fields of interest.

Considering that Gartner has been charged with bias from some circles already, this can't help things.

Who Owns Gartner?

Show me someone whining about fair use and I can show you someone violating copyright law.

Here's some Librarians "whining" about fair use.

You're in no position to argue as long as you violate the existing laws.

That is entirely stupid. Someone caught speeding in a speed trap has every right to argue that the speed limit should be increased. Someone having gay sex has every right to argue against anti-gay sex laws. Just because you are violating a law does not automatically void your opinion on the law.

Microsoft don't write software, they assimilate :)

Microsoft made their name through DOS - but did they write DOS? No, they bought Seattle Computer Products' 86-DOS operating system. Microsoft wrote Internet Explorer, right? Well, no, it was born out of code licensed from the Spyglass browser. Did they write SQL server? Nope - that was again developed with code licensed from Timeline.

Infact, whatever the latest bandwagon is, Microsoft buys out the competition? Instant messaging becomes in vogue? Microsoft buys an instant messaging developer. Holes in file security? Microsoft buys a XDegrees, a security specialist. Worried that Mac's can emulate Windows? Microsoft buys Connetix, the makers of Virtual PC. Microsoft worried about viruses negative effects on OS sales? Don't worry, Microsoft have just bought GeCAD, an AV vendor...

They sure do smell like a grassroots front for Microsoft...

Microsoft supported by dead people

Licenses on the new service packes give remote access to the contents of your machine to Redmond in such a way that it violates HIPAA. That's not counting the design and production flaws resulting in remote exploits for WinNT, Win2000, WinXp, and Win2003.

So bascially, storing or manipulating personal data with MS windows is a gross or willful negligence lawsuit waiting to happen.

Just becaues you can't see its use outside of a toy, doesn't mean everybody can't.

Looks like Microsoft is really taking off on the 64-bit front, check out articles around the web. I wonder what Linux is doing here? Have you guys even thought about 64-bit computing in your Linux OS? Cause it looks to me like Microsoft is going to be way ahead if it makes something that is twice as fast as your Linux thing.

article. Over Reliance on windows not good for national security.

Despite a long-standing and profitable relationship which constrains public friction, Intel and Microsoft have often had battles of varing seriousness on a bunch of topics...

Intel has been / is mad at Microsoft about:
- Constant attempts over the years to generalize their OSes to other processor archectures (NT on Alpha/MIPs, Pocket PC on all sorts of non-Intel (non X-scale) cpus and, of course, x86-64 and the eventual cpu independent version of .Net)
- Blocking Intel on hardware standards and initiatives
- Microsoft dragging it's feet about supporting new hardware features in the OS (eg USB on NT (never really), Hyperthreading (2 years) and Itanium Architecture (Linux had IA64 up and running 3 years before Ms)
-Microsoft's attempt to position Intel cpus as just another processor they support.

Microsoft has been / is mad at Intel about:
- Intel's general support of Linux in general including founding and funding the Open Source Development Lab (where Linus and Andrew are employed now)
- Intel's support of HP in running HP-UX on Itanium and Intel's historic support for Novell Netware, Solaris, Unixware and other Unices
-Support for OS-independent management and other hardware APIs that let other OSes get parity or better with Windows
-Occasionally making end-users aware of the prickly truth that the cost advantage of "Wintel" vs big RISC UNIX is all Intel hardware economics which makes the solution cheaper in spite of the greater cost of the Ms software
-Intel's attempt to position Windows as just another OS they support.

>QWERTY was designed to slow typists down, since old typewriters couldn't keep up with ultra-fast typists.

That's actually just a joke, not fact.

Some light reading.

The keyboard arrangement was considered important enough to be included on Sholes' patent granted in 1878 (see drawing), some years after the machine was into production. QWERTY's effect, by reducing those annoying clashes, was to speed up typing rather than slow it down.

Which really only make sense... The Straight Dope on this.

Furthermore, because hey, someone will bring it up, there are no quality studies that show the superiority of Dvorak layouts over QWERTY. :-)

P.S. Nice try on the sig. Those are for APPLICATIONS not Linux you dolt. Here is my new sig

31 Unpatched IE security holes
Server attacks stump Microsoft
Credit card theft feared in Windows flaw
Microsoft issues patch for "serious" XP hole
Windows flaw threatens PC services
Microsoft's Source Code Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Why I hate Microsoft
bsod_videowall
bsod_airport
License to plunder
Microsoft Media Player logs users' DVD picks
MS wanted to 'extend, embrace and extinguish' competition
Microsoft Palladium
Control with fine print
Microsoft WinXP Update spies on other PC software
Microsoft Windows: Insecure by Design
Microsoft software "riddled with vulnerabilities", trade body claims
Microsoft Issues Five New Security Warnings
Why Open Source Software / Free Software

I mean we let people from all over come here and work. Ummmmm, except we don't.

Um, YES we do!

The H-1 and L-1 Visa programs were invented specifically for this reason. In the US, we have no standard like those I've read about in Australia and elsewhere. Well, we have some regulations, but recently they've gone completely unenforced. If a company in this country can hire someone from overseas to do a job for which they're currently paying an American worker, and pay that worker half or less what the American makes, the company is under no pressure not to hire the foreign worker. It's happening for real. In the REAL world.

http://www.rescueamericanjobs.org/
http://www.local6.com/money/2381343/detail.html
http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/LosingYou rJ ob.htm
http://www.house.gov/delauro/press/2003/L1_bill_7- 10-03.htm

Further, US jobs now are being sent TO other countries. By some estimates, 2 million plus jobs in the next few years. Than't a HUGE chunk of the IT sector.

http://www.cio.com/archive/090103/backlash.html (accoring to this article, the number is like 10% of IT jobs)
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.j html?articleID=14700325
http://www.msnbc.com/news/947478.asp?cp1=1
http://www.techsunite.org/news/techind/030722_ibm. cfm
http://comment.cio.com/comments/13404.html

The reason this is a story here, is because a good number of us work in the IT sector. This has HUGE implications for us.

Consider the fact that many colleges around the nation are scaling back IT programs (my stepmother teaches various IT classes at a local college) and thike about what that means for those of us who spent money on educations or who have been relying on our IT experience as means to acquire jobs.

The economy and job prospects have been bad enough just dealing with the economic slowdown without having to deal with the jobs that are still there going away from the US (I know, I was unemployed for the greater portion of 2002, and I'm only employed now because I new the guy who ran the IT department for the company I work for now).

In many countries in the EU and also in Australia, they cannot hire a non-citizen unless they CANNOT find a qualified candidate who IS a citizen. The US government needs to step up and implement some similar legislation. Even if you think about this from a lawmakers perspective, an American who makes $50,000 a year pays a whole lot more than an unemployed American and the foreigner who takes his job for $30,000. They'll see a WHOLE LOT less than that from the unemployed American and the job that's no longer in the US! Even the companies that do use outsourcing are killing their own market. How many computers or programs or Coke ayr you going to buy when you're unemployed, and can the foreigner who's making half of what you were making pick up the slack? I don't think so...

Anyway, I'm done...

Well, sort of anyway. Center 7 is actually their hosting company, but Center 7 is one of Canopy's main companies, in fact it may be one of the only ones that really makes money which Canopy then uses to fund all the other ones.

So while Centershift may want to change ISPs, Canopy will probably sue them if they do. Hell, they may even sue them if they don't. That's what seems to happen to anyone that has a contract with a Canopy company.

Gabriel's organization would like to see the per performance royalties eliminated. Instead, a flat percentage of commercial Webcaster revenues, somewhere between 3 and 5 percent, would be a fair fee to pay, she said.

From an article entitled: SCO Rides Unix to Financial Turnaround

McBride quotes from the article:

SCO's intellectual-property ownership "is extremely powerful," president and CEO Darl McBride said at a media and analyst conference Thursday. "There are two major operating systems in play around the world--Unix and Windows. Microsoft owns Windows, and we own Unix."

The issue of intellectual property in the Internet age has begun to divide the IT industry into two camps--"those trying to destroy intellectual property and those who believe that intellectual property matters," McBride said. "The silent majority is behind SCO, and they're hoping that SCO prevails in the end. It gives other companies the ability to monetize their intellectual property."

Well, MS *has* recently decided to do some testing on Linux... http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.j html?articleID=12803689

According to Information Week the lawsuit against IBM will start in April of 2005!? Do we really have to put up with SCO claiming they can charge these rediculous rates for more than a year and a half? How much did Microsoft pay these guys?

"Robie the Robot" appears to be nothing more than an Evolution ER1 Robotics kit, which Evolution Robotics has been selling for quite a while now. It is a robotics kit that allows you to take an existing laptop and hook it up to some motors and a webcam and control through some command line API's or a nice GUI Evolution has built.

The American Sign Language translation glove was actually introduced at the 2002 Intel Science Talent Search competition by Ryan Patterson of Grand Junction, CO. Patterson's glove uses custom designed electronics to detect hand and finger movements and translate those movements from ASL into their English forms, letters and punctuation.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing Microsoft or saying that they are ripping off other people's ideas, but if they are trying to bill these items as new research developed at MS R&D labs that's wrong. If they are merely taking these ideas and refining them for future use in the consumer/professional world, then I'm sure that these concepts will benefit from having Microsoft's resources. I'm merely trying to point out that these ideas aren't new in any way, and they have already been conceived and engineered by others, who should recieve all due credit.

This story needs to be put in context with recent developments and crowing about Windows being chosen over Linux. The biggest story out of this surprising admission is that analysts and large organizations are starting to recognize the value proposition of Linux and Open Source, as described in the rejected post below. The most telling comment is in the quotation in boldface, which lends support to Mitch Kapor's predictions.

Microsoft Ranks Linux its Number Two Threat

While most media are focusing on Microsoft's growing sales and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 replacing Linux servers based on the June 2003 Netcraft survey, (also at SMH, but disputed by the Register) there's a more interesting story to Microsoft's latest earnings report and conference call. Speaking about the top five risks for Microsoft, CFO John Connors said, ''The general economic environment is risk and driver number one. Linux and non-commercial software is risk number two.'' The recent Munich win for Linux is partly credited for making Microsoft take Linux and OS software seriously. Said one analyst about future threats, ''People are underestimating Linux on the desktop. They're going to be surprised at how quickly Linux's threat will be an issue on the desktop.''

... courtesy of the rejected post machine. The government sector news sites are always good - and usually better - for details about contracts of this sort:

Microsoft/Dell Gets $90-$120 Million Homeland Security Contract

Microsoft has been awarded the five-year, $90 million Department of Homeland Security contract for desktop and server software. The contract will be managed by Dell and will provide the DHS with 140,000 desktops running Windows XP and Microsoft Office Professional. When consolidated with current agreements, the contract amounts to a six-year agreement covering 144,000 desktops, worth between $110 million and $120 million. This follows the $478 million, six-year deal with the Army announced last month. More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Washington Post, InformationWeek, the Register , eWEEK, and Reuters.

from this article.

Homeland Security says the advantages include a reduction in the costs associated with deployment, implementation, and maintenance, while providing for a more standard desktop environment. In addition, the department says, the agreement provides it with a common E-mail app.

Oh boy! 140,000 carbon-copy XP boxes running Outlook! That's a huge, free server-farm for anyone that cracks it... ;)

Quotes
In June 1989, Ronald Reagan said, "Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders. ... The Goliath of totalitarianism will be brought down by the David of the microchip." [1]

[1] http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.j html?articleID=10300367

Seriously, is there really a need for something like this to happen? At the risk of frowning on something that some guy did "just because he could", does anyone actually use these computers anymore? I deal with alot of users, and the OLDEST machine ive seen in years still being used as an internet capable machine is a 486/66DX. Those are few and far between. Im all for hobbys, (i recently spend a week learning how to program atari games) but is this really front page material? Arent there more pressing issues at hand ?

This article has additional information, including that the forum plans to release some source by the end of summer.

It's just a case of time before everyone else gets in on it.
Of course there are still those companies that will always eat the dog food they're given, rushing to pull the money out of their pockets.

(Umm..Err..sorry, left out the tags...)

Has anybody tried to make sense of what is really going on, and for what purpose does SCO (an obviously sinking ship) try to scuttle Linux intellectual property?

Here are interesting developments to think about:

1. Microsoft buys Apple stock. Microsoft ports MSOffice for the Mac. By developing apps for a Unix-like OS such as Apple, Microsoft developers can gain valuable programming experience for the Unix platform.

2. Microsoft develops Windows 2000 Server. Several important Unix security concepts gets implemented, like tighter file permissions and streamlined kernel operations.

3. Microsoft develops Windows XP. Much of the Unix concepts gets reimplemented in the desktop operating system.

4. Microsoft develops Windows 2003 Server. It is seen as a stop-gap release between Win2003 Server and WinXP while users wait for the ultimate OS in the works -- Longhorn.

On a side but very interesting note, Win2003 Server is now more Unix-like. Configuration files are no longer housed in a cryptic registry but are simple text files. Services can be configured individually.

A very interesting article on the net opines that Microsoft is becoming more and more like Unix.

Comments from the article:

"...products, where they facilitate Unix-to-Windows interoperability. Services for Unix is comprised of commands, utilities and libraries drawn from BSD Unix, a Posix layer developed by Microsoft, and GNU utilities, among other elements, Miller says. And Windows Server 2003 comes with new Unix-based command-line administration tools."

"But Microsoft needs to improve its Unix-interoperability pitch, a message that's coming from the top. "We must invest in better support for developers who want to move Unix applications to Windows, or extend Unix applications with additional functionality on Windows," CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in a state-of-the-company E-mail that went to all Microsoft employees on June 4.

"We have made great strides on Services for Unix, and Unix class-library support on Windows. There is still more to be done to support Unix APIs and scripts on Windows."

That push, more than anything else, may explain why Microsoft needed SCO's Unix code. And it's worth noting that Microsoft's Unix-interoperability strategy is essentially the same as its Linux-interoperability strategy. "We see Linux as yet another variant of Unix," Miller says. Services for Unix, he says, can be used to run Linux applications on Windows..."

5. Microsoft buys a chunk of SCO and takes a look at SCO's codebase. In this manner, they leverage the theoretical knowledge gained from working with MacOS, BSD, and their own implementation of these concepts on Win2K, Win2003 Server, and WinXP.

6. Meanwhile, MS unsuccessfully tries to stem the tide of Linux migrations around the world, most especially with lucrative government agencies. In a bid to boost up this effort, MS funded SCO to raise serious doubts on Linux IP, target IBM, and spread FUD. So far, this campaign has been somewhat successful in making potential migrators think twice of Linux.

7. Meanwhile, MS core developers tries to emulate Unix, trying to make libraries and APIs compatible with everyone else.

Why engineer an OS to become more and more Unix-like? Big question, any answers?

If Microsoft finishes the compatibility problem, then they can complete the stage which they have been working for so long.

Embed (or steal) the greatest Linux kernel into their core OS.

Since no one can take a peek at their source code, they can do this, then build "decoy wrappers" around it to mask its true core design.

Microsoft suddenly has a powerful core. Why bother designing your own when you can steal the greatest kernel for free, as long as you don't get cau

Working URL

Actually the original URL is fine, there's just a whitespace character added by ever helpful Slashcode. :)

Um, can I get mine without the SCO code, please? That Darrell McBride is a scary man:

The Linux business model was bound to change, and some people are having a hard time accepting this, McBride says. "The whole concept of getting something for nothing just doesn't hold up," he says. "The notion that you're going to run a Fortune 1,000 company on something that in the end could be more like Napster than an enterprise software system, it's a big question mark."
InformationWeek, today

It could be that Microsoft plans on killing VPC, and doesn't want there to be any way to run Windows on Mac.

Q: Yes, but why?
A: Palladium.

Microsoft is really into this whole Palladium thing. It provides a way to secure future revenue streams once Windows' competitors pass it by on the technology front. They just need to provide a 'secure platform' and convince/acquire the big media players into only allowing their IP to be available on Palladium.

Palladium relies on trusted hardware. If you have a bunch of trusted 'hardware' out there running emulated in software it's suddenly much easier to peek at. This is bad for media sales, and Microsoft revenue.

So, might as well cut off any such efforts before they get off the ground. Who do you think has more lawyers, FWB or Microsoft? My vocabulary word of the day today is barratry.

From this perspective, the iTunes Music Store is the biggest poke in the eye Steve could have stuck to Bill, and puts them on the defensive like nothing else could. The iTunes Music Store is actually strategically necessary for the future viability of Mac OS X and Apple. It's real purpose is to preempt Palladium. I have to admit, that's pretty frikkin clever.

I'll assume nuthing. Given Information Week "evidence", I'm more likely to believe the opposite.

Let's have a look at some other opinions from Information Week's "primary beat reporter for Microsoft coverage", John Foley. Here he tries to see things through Bill Gates eyes, a very silly thing to do when dealing with a liar. He ends up thinking that better things are comming again. Typical, with M$ the best is always yet to come. The rest of Foley's opinions and articles are the kind of no statement made blither only a CIO could love. It's buzzword filled, comercial oriented junk that wastes time and is the primary reason I quit reading Informationweek years ago.

It's not surprising that he would take this analyst's opinion at face value after a single night of study. Indeed, it almost looks planned. It's predictable shill type FUD.

I'll believe it when it's presented in court or published openly. If it's true, the rewrite of those 15 lines of code and comments will be out the next day.

I'll assume nuthing. Given Information Week "evidence", I'm more likely to believe the opposite.

Let's have a look at some other opinions from Information Week's "primary beat reporter for Microsoft coverage", John Foley. Here he tries to see things through Bill Gates eyes, a very silly thing to do when dealing with a liar. He ends up thinking that better things are comming again. Typical, with M$ the best is always yet to come. The rest of Foley's opinions and articles are the kind of no statement made blither only a CIO could love. It's buzzword filled, comercial oriented junk that wastes time and is the primary reason I quit reading Informationweek years ago.

It's not surprising that he would take this analyst's opinion at face value after a single night of study. Indeed, it almost looks planned. It's predictable shill type FUD.

I'll believe it when it's presented in court or published openly. If it's true, the rewrite of those 15 lines of code and comments will be out the next day.

Apparently amoung the evidence presented by Caldera/SCO is that there are comments allegedly copied from SysV to Linux.

Well, for those of you who believe analysts, that pretty much settles it. Mind you, you probably lost all your money on Telecom stocks, so SCO is unlikely to sue you anyway :-)

She says she was shown indentical comments. If true, that could be rather damning.

I wish they would at least publish the comments though. It's hard to know what she saw. Some similarity in simple comments could be accidental. But if it's long strings of identical comments..

Most of what I read at Slashdot doesn't seem to care if it's true or not. If IBM really did steal code, doesn't that mean anything? Or is it OK to steal as long as the people you steal for are happy - is this some Robin Hood thing?

Before you get pissed at me:

Look, I don't like this at all. I think this can do serious damage to both Linux and Unix and that the only people who win here are the immoral scum who run Microsoft. But if it really is theft, the fact that a great big stinking mess follows is not a reason to ignore it.

The fallout from this lawsuit could destroy my business. It could quite literally change my whole life, and not for the better. I have a lot to lose, and the prospects are rather frightening. But that doesn't change morality: if it IS theft, then whatever has to happen has to happen, and if it destroys me, well, that's life, right?

I'm still hoping that this is going to blow over fairly harmlessly. Of course I'm also hoping to win the lottery next week, right?

After all the hoopla about whether SCO or Novell owns the UNIX copyrights - News.com is reporting that a recently rediscovered contract between Novell and SCO dated 1996, seems to indicate that SCO do infact own the copyright (but not patents) for UNIX.

Meanwhile over at InformationWeek, the first analyst to report back on seeing SCO's "proof" under NDA, says she did find matches between Linux and SCO code. Laura DiDio, a Yankee Group analyst says she finds this "very damaging" - although of course Penguin lovers will probably be already be speculating about other possible reasons for any possible matches.

Informationweek.com reports that one of the first analysts to see SCO's "proof" (under NDA) did find matches between SCO and Linux code

Patche's Patch

As so many have said, what if some code was borrowed from linux ...

Miles Barel, IBM's program director of Unix marketing, acknowledges that Linux could overtake Monterey as the Unix platform of choice, possibly within three years. "In the interim, IBM will build Linux compatibility into Monterey," says Barel. "And if Linux does take over completely, Monterey users will continue to be able to run their apps."

information week

The date of the article matches some of SCOs claims

I'm not seeing many post to indicate that anyone read the second article. It presents quite a different picture, one that I'm inclined to believe. From the second link mentioned in the story:

The two plaintiffs [suwain_2 note: the two fired IT guys] were commended by both Collegis and the law school in their handling of the situation.

Employment of the technicians ended due to issues completely unrelated to this isolated incident....

Of course they wouldn't come out and admit to firing them for making the company (college, actually; everyone keeps saying company) look bad, but I'm inclined to believe them that the firing (or whatever it was) was completely unrelated to this.

It's kinda like a police officer who shows up late to work every day, and rarely does anything but 'guard' Dunkin Donuts. One day, he catches one of the FBI's Most Wanted. The next day, however, he's fired for always being late to work and rarely even doing his job. Interesting timing, but it's not necessarily correct to claim that he was fired for making the city look bad by catching the criminal in *their* city and not a neighboring one.

What I find annoying is that material about other products seems to get kicked off quickly from the front pages of many sites and some even disappear. This is unfortunate because information is essential in making informed decisions. Microsoft products have been unable to survive in a free market nor compete on technical merits, and then there are the image problems, security issues, fines.

The market has already changed and Microsoft has not. RedHat, Mandrake, Suse, and OS X are all far easier to install, use and maintain. And these are more secure. In other words, they are for all practical purposes, drop in replacements for most home and many business desktops, minus the games. For games, there's Playstation and Gamecube. The market has already said what it has to say about xbox

The U.S. economy is hurting so badly that deflation is now a danger. Ballmer, Allchin, and Gates' insistence on trying to keep a dead company afloat is just causing further harm. Enough all ready, if the executives haven't exercised their options by now, tough. Businesses and agencies now realize that by going with the better (i.e. non-Microsoft) systems, not only do they gain more flexibility, but can spend their time working rather than repair.