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Linux vs. SCO: The Decision Matrix
hexidec writes "Haven't seen this here yet, though I may have missed it. Anyway... A group of Australian techies have put together an analysis matrix of the likelyhood of each SCO Unix claim being true, and what outcome would most likely result if so. Puts a lot of the various recent suppositions in one handy place."
Ahhh... I feel the slashdot effect. Since this doc has tables, I put a mirror up. http://mirrors.tatay.org/lnxsco.html Cheers y'all!
Accentuate the positive, don't waste your mod points on the negative.
We'll cast Hugo Weaving as SCO, Keanu Reeves as Tux, and Laurence Fishburne as IBM. Carrie-Anne Moss would make an excellent IBM, since IBM's products are fairly sleek and sexy right now, and I'd really like to get into IBM...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:FOhL0ah_AIQJ: www.cyber.com.au/users/conz/linux_vs_sco_matrix.ht ml+Linux+vs.+SCO:+The+Decision+Matrix&hl=en&ie=UTF -8
Slashdot. The fastest crasher on the web.
Those ratings at the top indicating the likelihood of these allegations (or whatever you want to call them) don't really mean anything. They're just speculation and opinion, much like the 17,000 /. comments dealing with this whole deal. It reads nice and legal-sounding, but to me it looks like a table formatted thread straight off this site.
Why host the page on your own site when google already HAS THE CACHE
Morpheus: SCO is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your operating system. Or when you boot your AIX box. You can feel it when you surf the web. When you compile your kernel. When you mount your filesystems. It is the lawsuit that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
There is no SCO.
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Something cleverYeah, I know I will get modded down for just suggesting that SCO's action might have some effect, but well...
...but they forgot a row in the table:
Effect on SCO:
Everyone hates them
Everyone hates them
Everyone hates them
Everyone hates them
Everyone hates them
Everyone hates them
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I am distressed that most of the anti-SCO argument seems to be based on the fact that SCO continued to publish Linux after claiming infringement.
David Boies is a smart man, and surely he or his legal team would have thought of this. They must have some sort of legitimate defense up their sleeve. Maybe a direct attack on the legitimacy of the GPL?
I think it will run something like this: Linux is important to SCO's business. Even though they discovered violations in linux, they had to continue to release linux or suffer grave damage to their business. They should not be made to suffer for the malicious actions of IBM, and they did not voluntarily release their own source code, so the GPL should not apply to their proprietary code that somehow found its way into linux.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
This is your last chance.
You tale the Blue pill, and you decline the NDA. You come to your senses and walk away.
You take the Red pill and you stay in wonderland, and SCO will show you just how deep the Rabbit hole goes. Oh, and you can't tell anyone what you saw.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Who needs a decision matrix when you can have a Jump to Conclusions Board ?
Linux has already been affected by companies who have shown increased sales since beginning to spew FUD about "stolen IP" in Linux.
So true. But companies won't come right out and admit to this -- makes them look foolish.
Case in point: I was all set to introduce our school district (>50,000 students, 9 high schools) to Linux as an economic alternative to Novell. Servers were purchased (ProLiant DLs with dual processors and 6-disk RAIDs), Linux was installed, testing was done, quotas set up, we were ready to roll -- and then SCO dropped their bombshell. A week went by...two weeks...I discovered that due to "security" concerns, the servers were to be converted to Novell servers.
"Security" concerns? Bullshit. I had already worked several weeks with the network gurus to put their security concerns to rest.
This is but one government entity. The damage SCO has caused is quite extensive, and those who deny it are hiding their heads in the sand.
Who would have thought that Linux (and open-source software in general) would be brought to its knees by an indirect blow? Here we were, thinking the battle was to be fought in Redmond, when in fact we were flanked by SCO and didn't even realize it until it was too late.
Such is the price of hubris and arrogance. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." (Sun Tzu, Art of War)
Meeting:
Tech guy 1: Lets implement Linux, its free and robust.
Tech guy 2: Lets go with Windows, it costs more but there is that lawsuit which if SCO wins we might have to pay some undefined charges.
Boss: What lawsuit?
Tech guy 1: <goes on about how its fruitless and how SCO is the devil and blah blah blah repeating every Insightful post he's read on slashdot>
Boss: So Linux might or might not be infringing on someones code and we might be opening the company to legal action?
Tech guy 1: Yes but its just games that SCO...
Boss: Which version of Windows should we get?
So the longer this lawsuit goes on, the more decisions like this will have to be made.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Actually, it's more like this:
IBM, Red Hat, and SuSE are bikers hanging out at a seedy bar in Southern California, by the shore. Their harleys are parked out front, all choppers, gleaming and evil looking. Currently, IBM and Red Hat are playing a traditional game: each holds a lit cigar to his forearm while SuSE counts the seconds, with two twenty dollar bills at stake. A few feet away, the BSD brothers are playing cards at an outside table, a quart of Mexican tequila and a bunch of shotglasses next to the deck. Periodically, they throw back a shot. Their rusty Jeep Renegade sits nearby. Suddenly, there's a little lawnmower sound. A go-kart with a broken muffler pulls up, bumping into the Harleys and knocking them down. IBM, Red Hat, and Suse ferociously stride over and bellow.
"HEY, MAN! THOSE ARE OUR BIKES!"
A fat little kid wearing a shirt with wide horizontal stripes and a pair of bermuda shorts held up by orange suspenders jumps out of the go-kart and saunters over to the bikes. He's got freckles, bright red hair, and triple-thick glasses. He's obviously not "all there".
Fat kid: "Hi. I'm SCO. Motorbikes suck; I drive a go-kart." (kicks the nearest bike, breaking the headlight). If it wasn't for my Go-Kart technology, you wouldn't even HAVE these bikes. You should buy me some beers in appreciation."
IBM: (seething). "That was my bike. Kid, you really shouldn't have done that." Red Hat: (shakes head). SuSE: (muttering) "Gott in Himmel" (laughs)
IBM walks over, grabs the kid by the suspenders, and lifts him clear off the ground, bouncing him up and down while looking him over. Then, he tosses the kid way up in the air, catching him on the way down by his underwear waistband and yanking upwards with both hands. With a great stretching sound, the drawers pull all the way over the kid's head. IBM lets go, and they snap into place.
Everyone: MUHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Red Hat: "Hey, IBM, do that shit again!" SuSE: "Funny!" The BSD brothers: "huh huh huh huh -- HE said SHIT!"
SCO (through his underwear): "You buncha creeps! My grandfather used to own this land. I'll tear down this bar and make you take your alky bullshit somewhere else! And, what's up with that biker gay-chic thing?"
IBM: "Oh, my lawd, he went there." Red Hat: "Oh, you didn't..." SuSE: "Uh oh..." BSD Brother number 1: "Oh, boy, here we go."
IBM leans over, grabs the kid by the ankles, and heads to the outhouse. He kicks the door open, goes in, and the door slams.
(from inside)
SCO: Noooooooooo!
(SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH).
IBM comes walking back out, without SCO. He takes a long pull from the tequila bottle.
IBM: "Damn." BSD Brothers, in unison: "What, what happened, man?" IBM: "Damn..." Red Hat: "Hey, where'd the brat go?" SuSE: "Yeah, you gave him the swirly, right?" IBM: "Yep." Red Hat: "So... ?" IBM: "He's a slippery little bastard when he gets wet. Popped right out of my hands and went down into the latrine!"
Everyone: "NO WAY!"
IBM: "Yeah... Poor little bastard. Ah, well. What can you do? Maybe he'll swim back up outta it."
(about a minute later)
SCO flops out of the toilet seat, landing on the ground in front of the toilet, covered in green goo.
SCO: "URH! URG! CTHULU FLAGNTH!" Red Hat: "Hey, boys, somethin' ain't right about that kid, man. It looks like he's growin' fins."
Everyone looks. SCO has turned into a weirdo fish-man.
SCO: "CTHULU FLAGNTH!" IBM: "Well, whaddaya know?"
SCO runs across the parking lot, and leaps off the cliff into the sea.
SCO: "CTHULU FLAAAAAAAAAAAGNTH!" (SPLASH)
IBM, looking over the edge. "Well, I guess that's about that." Red Hat: "You don't see THAT every day." SuSE: "Pass me that there tequila bottle, ok?"
(fade to black)
You all thought I was going to get into the Microsoft/Cthulu thing, didn'tcha? Ha! Fooled ya!
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
For SCO to prevail it will have to establish that it owned the code, and that it was included in Linux distributions with malice and/or a callous disregard for the property rights of the code's true owners, but that SCO's "accidental" release of the same code under the GPL was not deliberate and shouldn't be held against it.
It seems to me that SCO was in a far better position to recognize that the code being distributed as part of Caldera was in fact part of SCO's property than it was for other Linux distributors who did not have access to that confidential code.
Question: SCO has declared itself a victim of breach of contract by IBM, specifically WRT AIX. Why, then, is it attacking Linux so specifically and directly?
Answer: the goal of this exercise is to attack Linux, nothing else.
Question: why is IBM saying nothing?
Answer: they believe SCO might win, and are willing to sacrifice Linux if necessary.
Question: why is Microsoft saying nothing?
Answer: everyone knows they hate Linux, so no-one believes their propaganda any longer. They need a fresh mouthpiece. SCO is that mouthpiece.
Question: why is Microsoft so intent on harming Linux?
Answer: the goals of Linux and all OSS are nothing less than the total anhilation of Microsoft. War is not a nice thing. This is not a metaphor: we are talking about the lives of people you know.
Question: if it is war, how do we win?
Answer: this is a good question, and timely. You win wars by avoiding the battles you cannot win and by winning those you can.
Question: what is the ultimate goal of Microsoft?
Answer: the closure of the "development gap", in which the right to create code still lies in the hands of the individual. Ultimately, this power must be restricted to licensed programmers only. Nothing less than that makes sense. If your think this is exageration, look at other professions, then think about the public's perception of hackers, Linux kernel hackers, and virus writers.
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It is the most relevant and insightful material I have seen to date and I highly recommend reading it.
Beware blue cats moving at