Culture Clash: SCO, OpenLinux, Linus And The GPL

hobsonchoice writes "SCO has issued a letter saying SCO Linux customers won't be sued. The same does not seem to apply if using a non-SCO distribution such as RedHat." LightSail points to the SCO letter itself, and raises an interesting point: "If they approve the use of 'their' IP in Linux in a single kernel, then the GPL holds that IP SCO allows to be used by a select few must be freely released to any and all. It appears that all Linux users everywhere were just given a license to continued use of Linux even if SCO would win their suit with IBM." And Haikuu writes "eWeek recently posted an interview conducted by e-mail exchange with Linus Torvalds regarding his recent move to the OSDL and the SCO suit."

Comments

It's a numbers Question here

[infonography]

Of course SCO Linux users won't be sued. There are too few to make it worth while.

SCO shoots both it's own feet....

[deanj]

Man, just as soon as SCO shoots itself in both feet during the past couple of weeks, it finds a third foot, and shoots that.... ....oh wait... that's not a foot.... ....ouch....

Nice Quote from Linus

[jpetts]

Interviewer: SCO alleges that you need to focus more on getting clarification as to where the code that goes in the Linux kernel comes from.
Linus:I allege that SCO is full of it.

Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[tpengster]

SCO has issued a letter saying SCO Linux customers won't be sued.

Sideshow Bob: The following neighbourhood residents will not be killed by me: Ned Flanders, Maude Flanders, Homer Simpson, Marge Simpson, Lisa Simpson, that little baby Simpson...that is all.

[Homer runs up to Bart's room]

Homer: Woo-hoo! Did you hear that Bart? Heh--oh...

Re:Is it worth it?

[perp]

How much suffering would you have to endure before you'd use Caldera on all your servers to make it stop?

At this point, I think it would take me and my loved ones being flogged with bundles of stinging nettles that have been dipped in hot sauce and rolled in salt, while listening to Celine Dion sing that Titanic song accompanied by an orchestra of bagpipes. In Hell.

In Defense of SCO

[Anonymous Coward]

Every day I log onto Slashdot, and every day it's another story about how SCO is trying to destroy the Linux community. And comment after comment does nothing but attack SCO. I for one am getting tired of this. I think it's about time that somebody stood up and took stock of all that SCO has contributed to the world. So here, then, is my own personal account about how SCO has changed my life for the better.

It was the winter of 1988, and I was a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz. One night, I went to the Wednesday juggling group, and I met this woman named Lynn. Lynn was in an on-again, off again relationship that at the moment was off again.

Well, by the end of the evening, Lynn and I had a date to go hiking that weekend. We went out for a hike, and one thing led to another, and the next thing you knew we went back to my dorm and slept together.

We continued on like this for a few weeks, merrily boinking away, and then I went away for spring break. When I returned, Lynn told me that she had gotten back together with her old boyfriend. It was no huge loss where I was concerned, and I was grateful for all the good times.

Now how does this relate to SCO, you ask? Well, it turns out that Lynn worked for SCO. At the time, Santa Cruz had no technology companies to speak of. So it stands to reason that if it weren't for SCO, Lynn likely would have found work in some other town, and we would never have met.

This is all a round-about way of saying that SCO got me laid. Which sort of pales in significance to who owns what lines of code or what licenses were or weren't handed out. Yet it seems the Slashdot crowd is obsessed with this technical minutia, and purposefully ignores all the great things that SCO has undoubtedly contributed to this world. Like getting me laid. So, people, please get it together and be a bit more objective about this great company.

Re:Is it worth it?

[ShieldW0lf]

Shit. They would have had me at Celine Dion...

Yikes

[Faust7]

Interviewer: ...where the code that goes in the Linux kernel comes from.

Linus: I allege that SCO is full of it.

Watch out, SCO is just nutty enough to take that the wrong way.

dynamic IP

[Graspee_Leemoor]

Ha, I pity SCO with their static IP!

I have dynamic IP.

Yesterday I owned the rights to Wireless Toasters, and the day before it was me who invented a certain sort of plastic sheathing suitable for undersea cables, tomorrow it may be me who invented tcp/ip!

Oh the excitement of dynamic IP...

graspee

20 years is a long time

[symbolset]

We look forward to helping you and your customers meet your business needs for the next twenty years. -- Optimist Darl

Re:SCO thinks the GPL is a joke

[The_Dougster]

Yes but that gives me karma and takes away theirs... W00T!