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United Linux Dead
DesScorp writes "ZDnet has a story about the impending demise of United Linux, with former general manager Paula Hunter stating that 'the legal entity still exists but I turned the lights out'. While a couple of reasons were given for UL's demise, most of the blame was firmly laid on the shoulders of SCO. As a member of group, their lawsuits killed off any real product development. SCO apparently refused to resign from UL, and Hunter said that 'As long as they remained a member, it remained impossible for us to begin new projects'. Which brings up the question, couldn't the other group members have kicked them out?"
Truly, a masterful side-stepping of the question.
The Army reading list
I'm pretty sure that 'united' doesn't mean 'backstabbing'... It's about the only thing they could do and keep some shred of dignity for the partner companies...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
But that's my point... doesn't their membership in UL necessarily obviate any IP claims they have on Linux?
IANAL, but isn't it like how you have to actively defend your trademark, or you lose all your rights to it?
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
couldn't the other group members have kicked them out?
The agreement as it was written was probably done before anyone had any idea that SCO was going to act in such a bizarre manner.
Since SCO wouldn't leave, this would be about the only way to create a new United Linux without Darl McBride tainting it.
No.
They still support their version of linux just fine. It's the fact that they say IBM put their proprietary code into linux, and that has nothing to do with the fact that they do in fact use Linux.
Think of it this way. Cokeacola sells coke (proprietary formul) and Dasani (water). Someone takes part of the formula for coke and sells water with the formula they took. Coke now claims they own water, but they don't stop distributing it.
The point has been already made so many times that it's almost not worth mentioning.
Yes, SCO/Caldera was very instrumental in Linux development over the years and were involved in Linux Standard Base, UnitedLinux, and a whole bunch of other stuff that they now claim infringes on their IP.
Every now and then Grokdot or Slashlaw prints a story "Linux Developer worked for SCO!!" as if it were news or something. SCO/Caldera used to be a leading distribution, and their name is all over the kernel.
I'm sure the SCO business didn't help but it's not like United Linux was going anywhere anyway. Meanwhile, I notice Bruce Perens and Eric raymond have both showed up to flog their new pet schemes. ;-) I'll go cheer on the "What about Gentoo?" zealots instead.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
the title of the SCO website is SCO grows your business. unless of course you rearrange the word unix, put an 'L' in front, and give it away for free.
also found this link - SCO says "Linux hurts US". is this company into sadomasochism?
Take away the right to say "fuck" and you take away the right to say "fuck the government." - Lenny Bruce
SCO can be blamed for this, but when it comes down to it UL wasn't making any progress for ages before this, it had a big hype then didn't do anything, I think all the partner companies realised it wasn't working, this SCO crap just finish it all off.
--- any post that takes longer than 20 seconds to write, isn't worth writing
That article was in the daily SCO story posted yesterday. However, you were modded up so I guess people didn't see it then. =)
But they want everybody who uses Linux to pay up, including the people who used the distros produced by the other players in United Linux, even though those distributions were free when SCO joined United Linux.
I think the better analogy is this: CocaCola sells cola. Pepsi and Royal Crown come along and they start selling cola too. Then they all decide to create an organization called United Cola to work on better, um, making their colas taste the same (or something.) Then CocaCola later decides to sue Pepsi and Royal Crown for making cola!
They can't do that! Their joining United Cola gave tacit approval to Pepsi and Royal Crown to make cola.
You can't just bait people like this. People start investing in Pepsi and Royal Crown based on CocaCola's implicit consent. Factories are built, delivery trucks are bought, etc.
There was a time to say "No", and SCO instead said "Yes." So let's move on.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
"we take these actions secure in the knowledge that our system of copyright laws is built on the foundation of the constitution and that our rights will be protected under law. we do so knowing that those who believe 'software should be free' cannot prevail against congress and the ruling of seven supreme court justices who believe that 'the motive of profit is the engine that ensures the progress of science.'"
they may as well call all linux users a bunch of commie reds, recall mccarthy, and get the execution chambers readyTake away the right to say "fuck" and you take away the right to say "fuck the government." - Lenny Bruce
Oracle had a nice agreement whereby if you had any issue at all that affected the operation of your database, they would troubleshoot it to the end no matter if the cause turned out to be an OS issue; provided that you:
:(
1) Maintained an active Oracle support contract and
2) Maintained an active support contract with one of the UnitedLinux vendors.
They also have that same deal with RedHat. I was hoping to move from AIX to SuSE Enterprise Server later this year for our Oracle DB server, but now I may be forced to go with RedHat.
Does anyone know how this affects the Oracle deal?
-- Cameron
I definitely was unfair to Conectiva, at least. For a small distro, their hackers (Kojima, Tosatti, the KDE guys) make a lot of extremely valuable contributions. Still, the impact they have outside of South America is minimal and I haven't heard much about the distro itself in a while. And in years of reading mailing lists, bug reports, IRC, I've never encountered a TurboLinux user.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
The UserLinux project is United Linux done right.
*cough* *c SHAMELESS PLUG!!! ough* *ahem* Err... excuse me.
Bruce, don't get me wrong, I like you and the work you do. I've got you on my friends list. I'll probably fiddle with UserLinux when it comes out. But this is close to inexcusible.
United Linux was, to my understanding, a corporate response to RHEL ES/AS, the "server" products. My understanding of UserLinux is that it is a grassroots response to RHEL WS, the "desktop" product. Of course, any Linux can be used to run server apps, but the point is UserLinux's target is the desktop. United Linux had plans of certifying the "big iron" apps like Oracle, SAP, etc., that large corporations feel they need support for. How long before I'll be able to get Oracle to support their latest datacenter DB product on UserLinux like I could right now on RHEL AS? I'm afraid it'll take more than a grassroots effort to compete with Redhat's server lineup...
I came real close to installing united linux when redhat discontinued their regular non-AS line. Then I found out SCO was part of united linux, I went with some other distro instead.
> They can't do that! Their joining United Cola gave tacit approval to Pepsi and Royal Crown to make cola.
Ahhh, but Coke wouldn't have joined the group if they had known that the key to Pepsi's success lies in the fact that they stole the recipe for Sprite years ago and incorporate key ingredients from it into the Pepsi formula. Hell, if it wasn't for that theft, Pepsi never would have been able to compete as a soft drink and Coke wouldn't have had to join such groups in order improve their product since they would have owned the market anyway!
Collaboration was part of the partnership deal, not trading recipes. They're only trying to get back what's rightfully theirs from the Pepsi infidels.
Now, if we can only kill off the LSB, we stand a chance of getting rid of RPM. Mmm... an "RPM dead" headline on Slashdot, wouldn't that be a lovely thing to see?
(No, I'm not trolling, I'm serious.)
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak