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IBM Doesn't Comply With SCO's Deadline
prostoalex writes "IBM refused to settle with SCO and comply with their deadline, expiring Friday the 13th. "We've got a strong defense case, and we're going to fight it", IBM representative is quoted."
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LOL! The guy wasn't saying that IBM gave in. He was just saying 'OK, well nobody expected IBM to give in anyway, so this isn't much of a surprise'. Though I admit it WAS worded somewhat ambiguously.
I posted about the dumb NY Times link issue yesterday in a similar post. A day later, a reader submits a story with a no-reg-needed URL. Way to go! Now, if we can get the message out to everybody that they should follow this pattern! Great work!
Linux software companies could also become SCO targets. "Do we have potential issues with Red Hat, SuSE and other commercial Linux distributors--yes, we might," Sontag said, adding that chances for negotiating with such companies appear to be slim.
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
> Modern OSS lack original ideas.
No it doesn't. Look at GNU Radio. You can use it to decode HDTV signals. Try finding non-free software that does the same thing. The linux kernel has VFS (Virtual Filesystem Switch) which acts as an abstraction layer allowing you to mount and use many different file systems in the same way. That's pretty original. Look at OpenBSD. It has encrypted swap space and random pids. What other OS has that? Look at apache. Before apache you couldn't have more than one website per box. Look at Gnutella, it was the first distributed p2p software ever. And the list goes on....
50 years, more like 100 years, it was called something different 100 years ago but still the same IBM. It made counting machines used for the census.
Yeah, it used to be called Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company back in 1911. CTR merger in 1911
TartanBlue
Look at all the replies misinterpreting your post. They think you are somehow saying that IBM did give in!
I don't know where they got this from your words... Just goes to show you that Slashdot readers have very poor reading comprehension.
How can you say this?
Although Linux originally started as a unix clone, it was derived from Minix which in turn was based on the unix methodology. But Linux has changed, grown, if it hadn't why would people now be using it?
Open source is different for exactly the reason that its open source, anyone can look it and they are free to change it. This means that the software is continually evolving - sometimes using multiple paths, with each contributing to the overall future of the software. Who knows what Linux will look like in another 10 years? but at least it can adapt, new hardware vendors can view the source and optimise their hardware/drivers ready for Linux and if needed the kernel itself can be changed to help accomodate them.
As other people have said any software can become tainted with other proprietry code, especially when you have source licenses from many
vendors used on one of your products.
Take for example the MSQL/Timeline patent issue.
How many people would be willing to start from scratch now? look how long the hurd has taken to emerge, and even now it uses code from Linux to help it take off.
Some would say that Gnome and KDE are just Windows wannabes, but for how long? again they will evolve over time as people demand new ideas and concepts.
So it's important that open source comes out of this mess as clean as possible because if it doesn't then important contributors may be scared off and thus reduce the speed at which the current open source movement is expanding.
This is purely a knee-jerk reaction by SCO^h^h^h Caldera to take as much as possible from our community when they realised that their business model had failed.
For a company that seems to hate Linux so much it is funny to see via Netcraft that Sco's site SCO.COM is running Linux. Seemed they used to use SCO UNIX but switched to Linux according to the graphs. Yet IBM, that pushes Linux runs on AIX.
Linux is *NOT* derived from Minix. The two OS's are very different creatures, Minix uses a Mach microkernel for crying out loud.
Linus was running Minix (with GNU toolchain) when he started writing Linux, and Linux used the MinixFS until it got its own filesystem (ext). Thats it.
SCOs claims are, at the very least, mostly bullshit. But think about it. Even if there is some element, somewhere, that's true, what would be their chances of winning against Big Blue? Practically nothing. IBM has the worlds largest collection of patents, and this is for defensive purposes. Even if SCO comes up with a true charge, IBM will just come back with a couple hundred allegations of patent violation. IBM knows how to play the litigation game.
And SCO probably doesn't even have a case to begin with. They're doomed.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
When talking about anti-Semitism, Henry Ford may be a bad example to bring up.
Census machines at the time were tailor-made for the sought use. For example, you had to devise punch cards for each use, and know what each meant.
There's a "race" question even on modern day census forms, tho'. I remember filling mine in "other" since I'm not a member of one of the state-approved minorities. That question, in retrospect, was used to single out Jews, but at the time, I'm sure it appeared to be just as much the state's business as any other question on the form.
There was a Hollerith building in Auschwitz (IBM was IBM/Hollerith, at the time) with (amongst others) IBM staffs.
It would be foolish to assume that there was no overlap between the two groups "IBM Germany employees" and "Nazi party members" in the 1930s. But back in the modern day, most IBM employees weren't even born back then - how can you blame them for those events? And how can you expect each individual employee to subscribe to the same political beliefs as the company? After all, I bet there are some Nader voters working for Shell.
"it's like a bank robbery was made with a Ford truck driven by a Ford employee.. you can't blame ford for that, do you?"
Companies should be responsible for acts their employees commit outside of work? An interesting perspective, but not one that's particularly likely or desirable.
From the article:
Excuse me?
Software development was originally and traditionally open source. The first software came from academic researchers who had no need to sell software, and from computer equipment manufacturers who initially only viewed the market for selling hardware. There was no concept of proprietary software when the computer industry started. Eventually that was brought into the scheme of things as competitors came along, such as RCA when it first tried to clone the IBM mainframes. But all along, most academically developed software was free and open source. That tradition just became more noticed by businesses once critical mass (e.g. Linux) was reached that attracted everyone to it.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
The part of IBM that has been around since the 1890s is Hollerinth:
- 00 2/history/hollerinth.html
http://www.cs.nyu.edu/courses/spring00/V22.0004
The US Census was the birth of the punch card and indirectly, what we know of as IBM.
IBM history is really fascinating. For instance, in the great depression Watson made the same mistake as Henry Ford -- over-production. IBM would have struggled hard like Ford did if it wasn't for Roosevelt's New Deal (which, incidentally, needed a *lot* of tabulating machines to account for it all).
I could go on and on, but I suggest you get a good book such as "Computer: History of the Information Machine". The history of the computing industry is much like a geek soap opera.
In fact IBM is inherently no safer than any other stock. If you want safety, buy treasuries. The government can just print up more money if they need to pay you.
You insult my intelligence by posting such nonsense.
Even Microsoft itself has admitted that the license itself wasn't really the reason for the purchase, they have stated that they wanted to "support" SCO because they treat that valuable IP the right way.
So better check with your local MSFT-representative to get your FUD inline with the official partyline from Redmond.
Not the same thing. For example there is a Linux VFS interface that allows you to remotely mount an SSH session as if it were a local drive. Impossible on Netware. There are many other examples of similar feats that are impossible on Netware, Windows or any other "modern" OS.
Is that in any way different from software that encrypts your whole HD (including the swap file) like PointSec or Safeguard?
Hell yes. Encrypted swap space secures your data at run time. Encrypted hard disks decrypt the data before allowing user space processes access. That's a very bad thing, and negates the purpose of encryption in the first place.
This was possible with IIS in 1997. Was this feature available in Apache back then?
This feature was available at least a year before, I'm not exactly sure when version 1.1 came out, but it was the fist version of Apache to support it.
Face it, honkey, Open Source software has for the last 30 years or so defined the leading edge of software development. It certainly has never been dominant or as slick as the commercial alternatives, but it has always led the way.
They are claiming two things - first that "someone" put their code into Linux.
Second, they are claiming that IBM used "knowledge" of their OS to make Linux better.
I am not a lawyer, but the SCO-IBM contract, published on SCO's site appears to grant IBM the right to create derivative works, and use the knowledge any way they likely. It more or less says that explicitly. The only thing forbidden is cut and paste of code. Go to this link, and look at the top of page 2 especially http://www.sco.com/scosource/ExhibitC.qxd.pdf
I did a 15 page research paper on the History of IBM so I'm well versed in its accomplishment. History of the Information Machine was a great resource when I was doing my research. I'd definitely recommend this book to everyone.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
... but the URL really is mis-spelt.
First read this: OSI Position Paper on the SCO-vs.-IBM Complaint. Whether or not you like esr, Eric has the facts straight. SCaldera has made many outright lies in their 'complaint' against IBM.
MozillaQuest has been covering this from the very beginning. The timeline you request can be easily determined from their articles.
-- hgc
Linux: There is no infringing code.