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How SCO Helped Linux Go Enterprise

An anonymous reader submits: "SCO may now have filed for UNIX copyrights and made various allegations about code-copying, but the actual complaint against IBM still seems to be focused around allegations UNIX-based enterprise technologies (such as RCU, JFS and SMP) being improperly added to Linux. Yet, reviewing the Linux kernel archives reveals some interesting and surprising background on just who helped put these technologies into Linux. PJ's GROKLAW blog has uncovered that 'Caldera Employee Was Key Linux Kernel Contributor,' including what looks like a lot of work on the early stages of JFS. The same employee's name also crops up when we look at RCU. When IBM posts RCU improvements, did he complain? No, he requests further improvements even helpfully providing a link to inspire the IBMer!"

"Lastly, definitely worth reading, Alan Cox on Linux SMP. He says that got he ideas from a book (which presumably can't be somebody's trade secret), invented his own implementation, and did this using hardware provided by Caldera (SCO themselves do acknowledge providing hardware to the Linux SMP team)." The article points out of Christof Hellwig (the Caldera-employed kernel contributor) that "He's likely a great guy, and he's undoubtedly been a trusted Linux contributor, so this is nothing against him. It's about SCO and their position in the lawsuit, and it's about IBM's affirmative defenses."

6 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. first non GNAA post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
  2. Offtopic? by dreamchaser · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Once again a crack smoking moderator. Mod this as Funny!

    1. Re:Offtopic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
      Once again a crack smoking moderator.

      Didn't you know they drug tested moderators, you only get points if you show crack in your system.

  3. In other news..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    See http://sg.news.yahoo.com/030721/1/3cq45.html.

    Pop icon Michael Jackson comes out against locking up music pirates

    Pop superstar Michael Jackson on Monday hit out at a proposed new US law that would make the musical piracy on the Internet punishable by a possible jail sentence.

    The self-styled "King of Pop" feels that, while he would like to see the practice of stealing music off the Internet stamped out, the legislation against the downloading of copyrighted material was too harsh.

    "I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans -- mostly teenagers -- in jail for downloading music," he said in a statement from his Neverland Ranch in the western state of California.

    "It is wrong to illegally download, but the answer cannot be jail. Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws, and we should look to new technologies ... for solutions.

    "This way, innovation continues to be the hallmark of America. It is the fans that drive the success of the music business," the "Gloved One" said.

    Jackson's spokesman in Los Angeles said the 44-year-old singer felt that lawmakers are tackling the problem in the wrong way in the proposed law.

    US lawmakers on July 16 introduced into the House of Representatives the Authors, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security law that makes illegal downloading of copyrighted materials a felony offence.

    But while the illegal downloading of music does represent a major problem for the ailing industry, Jackson feels the solution proposed by the legislation is "absolutely inappropriate," Backerman told AFP.

    "He doesn't want to see jails piled up with teenagers. He is proposing a win-win situation for both the audience and the music fans," he said.

    Jackson, who has seldom been out of the gossip pages this year amid a series of very public lawsuits against him, is himself a victim of the music industry's declining fortunes that it blames largely on musical piracy.

    His superstar image has waned since his 1980s heyday, with sales of 2001's "Invincible," which reportedly cost 30 million dollars to produce, pulled in only around five million dollars worldwide.

    The US music industry blames the easy and free availability of download-able music on the Internet for plunging record sales which have prompted industry bosses to urgently seek to crack down on piracy.

  4. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    As opposed to Deep Throat of Monicagate fame - "Follow the thong"...

  5. Re:Just remember... by HiThere · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Hasn't Jesse Ventura been a better than average governor?

    I'm fairly sure that he's been doing a better job than my governor. Granted, that's not saying much.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.