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Caldera/SCO Co-Founder Ransom Love Speaks

Posted by michael on from the still-taking-his-medication-for-the-moment dept.

securitas writes "CNet has published an interview with Caldera (now SCO Group) co-founder Ransom Love, in which he talks about the Novell acquisition of SuSE, Novell's Linux history, the early history of Caldera, the SCO-IBM lawsuit, his new role at Progeny and open standards. It's a good read that covers a lot of ground in a relatively short space."

12 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. If anyone is going to set the standard for Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It will probably be Novell, since they have the resources to push their offerings. They like IBM are fully embracing Linux and probably succeed.

  2. Long-standing issues ? by Space+cowboy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I wasn't surprised about the lawsuit against IBM because there were longstanding issues we weren't able to resolve with IBM.

    This was interesting - it's the first I've heard of a long-standing disagreement with IBM. The SCO press I've seen so far has presented it as a "We've just discovered this" rather than a "We've been trying for years to rationalise this". I'm surprised they're not taking the latter path, it would look better from a PR perspective. Must be legal reasons, I suppose.

    Simon
    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
  3. interesting... by zeruch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...in that it offers some mildly engaging history, but not much else. The phrase that bothers me is:

    it's so ironic, the turn of events. (Caldera began discussing) what we can do through UnitedLinux to indemnify people who had used both Unix and Linux. Apparently, Darl took that in a little different direction than we intended.

    I can't tell if thats Ransome indicting Darl or simply distancing himself from the brouhaha.

  4. You're missing the point. by Ikeya · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "They could have owned Linux" was said in regards to the fact that Novell could have been a huge player and market leader in the Linux market.

    ikeya

    --
    ---- Move SIG...For great justice!
    1. Re:You're missing the point. by rifter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "They could have owned Linux" was said in regards to the fact that Novell could have been a huge player and market leader in the Linux market.

      I'm not so sure about that. I think Ransom Love really thinks they could have owned Linux. After all it was him that started Caldera on the road against Linux in the first place, by trying to charge per-user connection licenses to connect to a Caldera Linux server and trying to make SCO UNIXware and Caldera the same product by mingling the codebases.

  5. What Love wisely leaves out... by YU+Nicks+NE+Way · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is that he and his management team burned through many tens of millions of dollars worth of venture capital, along with a significant portion of the original Microsoft settlement, and, in the end, had nothing to show for it. The venture capital org behind Caldera (Canopy, remember them?) finally wised up, threw out Love's team, and put it a disaster recovery team.

    Caldera/SCO may or may not have any legal basis for when they're doing now, but they've certainly got a better plan that Love's gang of Underpants Gnomes did...

  6. Re:Just how well did Ransom know Darl? by sjvn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First, Darl McBride worked in building up Novell Japan and before he left he headed Novell's Embedded Systems Division (NEST). Love would have worked with him at a distance, very different departments, in the late 80s, early 90s.

    Steven

  7. Facinating "if's" by downix · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hindsight is always 20/20.

    If only IBM pushed OS/2 onto the desktop
    If only Commodore could market their way out of a paper bag
    If only Atari hadn't fumbled the desktop
    and now:
    if only Novell had pushed for Linux rather than UNIX in the 90's...

    --
    Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
  8. Analysis by Proteus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My first thought, upon reading this article, is that it really bears little relevance to the SCO-IBM suit. Mr. Love is no longer with SCO, and appears to have chosen to pursue more traditional UNIX flavors over Linux.

    However, on further thinking this over, I realize that Mr. Love has a unique perspective: he understands how SCO conducts its business, but he has the objectivity of an outsider. Consider this:

    " I wasn't surprised about the lawsuit against IBM because there were longstanding issues we weren't able to resolve with IBM."
    It would appear, then, that Mr. Love is suggesting that the lawsuit in question is a vengence tactic - a way to attack IBM for 'unresolved issues'.

    Mr. Love also strike a rather insidious blow at SCO's choice of filing such a major lawsuit:

    " I lived through the Microsoft suit at Caldera (in which Caldera sued Microsoft over the DOS operating system), and those things take on a life of their own. They consume a business. When it first came out my biggest concern--we had done work to get SCO to a position where it was profitable, then they got themselves embroiled in this major lawsuit, and I just new it was going to go south. That's when we--my wife and I--sold our shares."
    Notice how Mr. Love implies that lawsuits (and, by context and implication this lawsuit), are bad for SCO; he further indicates that selling SCO stock might be a wise idea, by relating his own decision to sell. If SCO et al still take Mr. Love seriously, they are likely to review how to continue without either giving up the lawsuit (which would look bad to investors, as it is an implied admission of error) or continuing down a fatal path.

    Given the slim chance of SCO actually winning this lawsuit, it makes one wonder what their strategy is; it all must come down to how will it affect the stock?

    --
    We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
  9. Off-topic, but very interesting by Knights+who+say+'INT · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Linked in a sidebar in that article's website, there's this interesting interview with Billy Gates on Linux.


    If you want a quote to startle your appetite, here it goes:

    Five years ago it would have been Windows versus OS/2. A few years before, it would have been Windows versus Macintosh. Before, maybe it would have been C/PM 86, and before that, maybe CP/M 80. There's always been some challenger to the operating system. Linux--which is only a kernel--is not where the interesting stuff is going on nowadays.


    I should really have submitted this as a main page story, as my karma really needs some help since I've started being realistic on the LG business.

  10. 0wn3d! by LMCBoy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd be interested to know in what sense Mr. Love thinks that Novell could have "owned" Linux, had they played their cards right.

    If he meant that literally, it's mind-boggling that someone could have been an executive for Linux-related companies for so many years, and still have absolutely no clue about it.

    But hey, I've learned not to underestimate this guy in the cluelessness department.

    --
    Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
  11. Despite the Name jokes, by Artifakt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ransom Love may have told a truth or two here. Freqently people have attributed the seeming irrationality of SCO to McBride and others being on Crack. However, what better explains their actions than that this lawsuit has begun as SCO's one last chance at "payback" for old grudges? Maybe it's a classic tragedy, with McBride ending up saying "For Hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee" just before the great blue whale rolls over on him.

    --
    Who is John Cabal?