OSDL Says SCO Suit Was Good for Linux

sebFlyte notes a zdnet story thats says "Speaking at Queen Mary, University of London, on Monday night, Open Source Developer Labs chief executive Stuart Cohen said the lawsuits [SCO suing everyone in sight over supposed issues with Linux] were "the best thing that ever happened to Linux"'

Comments

I can think of better things

[jasper-la]

Well I can think of better things happend to Linux! Big companies choosing Linux' side for example. Or the GPL with version 0.12!

Re:I can think of better things

[confuted]

...and Windows.

Re:I can think of better things

[Richard_J_N]

Or even (shock) Linus actually deciding to write it in the first place!!

Re:I can think of better things

[falconed]

Sure there could be better things. But there's no such thing as bad publicity, and the more publicity Linux gets, the better.

The SCO case put Linux on the front page. Maybe it wasn't under the best circumstances, but I'll bet it got a lot of people saying "Linux? What's that?" and actually getting an answer.

Re:I can think of better things

[GodLived]

... or IBM offering Linux on its high-end servers, or the SE Linux initiative.

Re:I can think of better things

[jasper-la]

>The SCO case put Linux on the front page. Maybe it wasn't under the best circumstances, but I'll bet it got a lot of people saying "Linux? What's that?" and actually getting an answer. Yup, that's true. But still, now a lot of people who know about the case think it's Linux in general. While it's GNU/Linux! But in this context, talking about the kernel, it is just Linux.

Re:I can think of better things

[jasper-la]

That's also true: the big companies publicly joining the GNU/Linux side of the fence.

Re:I can think of better things

[falconed]

You're right, most people aren't going to know the difference between the kernel and a distro or the plethora of licenses and packages out there. I just meant that the SCO case increased awareness of Linux in a crowd that is difficult for the open source community to reach. IBM's Linux commercial is another example (a positive one), but most open source projects don't have the money it takes to generate that kind of advertising. Even though SCO was trying to cast Linux in a bad light with their case, it was still free advertising.

Besides, how many New York Times subscribers know what the latest version of Windows is? They might not know what patches to apply or how to install office, but they know what the products are and what they do. Now some of those people have heard of Linux and have a general understanding of what it is and what it's for.

Re:I can think of better things

[Theatetus]

Or the PaX project being called off because of massive critical security holes?

Re:I can think of better things

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. That was one of the best things happening in Linux land for the last years. Good to see those idiot arrogant buffoons go away. Now if Brad Spengler decided to piss off as well, instead of selling exploits, it'd be perfect.

Re:I can think of better things

[Anonymous Coward]

Slight correction: selling exploits for vulnerabilities he knew about (presumably for a long time) and didn't do squiddly to inform the maintainers about. Instead he just chose to sell them to whomever paid the most. Fuckin' tosser. I seriously hope he never ever again find a job in computer security.

Re:I can think of better things

[pangloss]

eh? links, more detail about this?

Re:I can think of better things

[dfiguero]

Well the article does say:

one of the best things that happened to Linux

The poster just decided not to include that extra word.

Re:I can think of better things

[Theatetus]

Here is a link.

Re:I can think of better things

[DA-MAN]

Sure there could be better things. But there's no such thing as bad publicity, and the more publicity Linux gets, the better.

I agree there are examples of when bad publicity is a good thing. For example Paris Hilton's sidekick get's hacked, and suddenly there is a huge spike of sidekicks.

However I'd hate to be Check Point right now, everyone (incl. Slashdot, FoxNews, CNN) keeps saying Check Point lost thousands of peoples data when in fact that was Choice Point. For a security company losing thousands of peoples data is a bad thing . . .

Re:I can think of better things

[snorklewacker]

Or blue-green algae making it possible to have an atmosphere that Linus could survive in!

Or the big bang, for, uh, happening.

Re:I can think of better things

[Pantero Blanco]

Being a proponent of intelligent design, I thank the Creator for initializing the series of events that made it possible for the human race to form and spawn Linus Torvalds, so that he was able to create the Linux kernel. :D

It just proves the old adage

[winkydink]

There's no such thing as bad publicity.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[TheKubrix]

In that case, someone give Paris Hilton a copy of Linux, Quick!!

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Anonymous Coward]

How about
"That which does not kill me makes me stronger".

Re:It just proves the old adage

[boinger]

As opposed to the new adage version, right?

</peeve>

(all adages are old)

Re:It just proves the old adage

[TheKubrix]

Even to that, does anyone remember the e-coli crises with Jack in the Box? A handful of their customers were being infected and JitB almost went down for the count. Now look at them.....a day almost can't go by without a commercial from them on either tv/radio.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[GMFTatsujin]

Well... not unless you're SCO.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes! What a great team! Linux is free and open to EVERYBODY... Just like Paris!!

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Michael O-P]

Wally disputes many old adages today:

http://www.comics.com/comics/dilbert/index.html

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Anonymous Coward]

Even better:

That which does not kill me makes me stronger.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[what_the_frell]

Yep - both good press and bad press serves to stick your product's name under more peoples noses than before, especially if it's an industry power like Linux. ;)

Re:It just proves the old adage

[thirteenVA]

but does it stand up to the slashdot adage that any sex is better than sitting alone in the basement?

Re:It just proves the old adage

[ameline]

The only bad publicity is an obituary -- and even then only if you're actually dead.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[micromoog]

That message was a waste of effort, time, network resources, RAM, CPU time, and electricity.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[boinger]

Wow.

So much effect for so little effort.

Maybe I can patent it and sue people who try to write similarly wasteful posts. ;)

Re:It just proves the old adage

[MightyMartian]

That was an example of a corporation managing through one helluva lot of PR to get over what might very well have sunk them, and after the E. coli outbreak it certainly seemed like they were doomed. Of course, it was also pointed out to me that Jack in the Box is now probably the single safest place on Earth to eat a hamburger.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Ohreally_factor]

Good example. Paris Hilton was just another rich heiress before the sex tape. She's managed to build a career on it.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[DLWormwood]

What if you're a bottled water company, and it's announced you accidentally put human waste in your water over the past year.

What if you put recycled human waste in your water on purpose? (Sorry, it's a PDF.)

The company didn't really exist; it was a marketing experiment. But there was so much positive demand to the campaign that a limited edition run of the stuff was actually made.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Minna Kirai]

"That which does not kill me makes me stronger"

Like how in "Million Dollar Baby", when that woman boxer got beat up, and it just made her stronger!

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Serveert]

...unless the bad publicity is your obituary. (credit: Dennis Rodman)

Re:It just proves the old adage

[DrXym]

Unless you're SCO in which case any publicity is akin to sticking a calf's hoof up your arse or raping a chicken and expecting people to buy your products for it.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[m50d]

You're right. Including sex with linux would be a lot better thing to happen to it.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux is free and open to EVERYBODY... Just like Paris!!

So, like, if Paris Hilton is so available, how come 99% of slashdotters are still virgins?

Re:It just proves the old adage

[gl4ss]

I don't know.. if you're sat in a basement browsing slashdot at 0 i'm sure you've seen sex scenes that you'd rather stay the fuck out of....

Re:It just proves the old adage

[thenefariousone]

...Depends on the basement...

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Billly Gates]

To be honest if it were not for Paris Hilton's lesbian sex tape with a former miss America I would have never heard of her.

And yes neither would most men. She became who she was by the tapes.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[simcop2387]

since suprnova got shut down we can't find the torrent!

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Anonymous Coward]

Last night was awful. Letterman had Paris Hilton, and Leno had these two losers who punch each other in the face for fun. God, what a bunch of fucking losers. Leno also had on Mel Gibson, and it was obvious Mel had no clue what to make of those laugh-at-me-I-got-a-black-eye-haha-punch-me-in-the -nuts losers.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Anonymous Coward]

Im working on it - problem is getting 8 packages into the three slots i allocated...

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Ohreally_factor]

I think you misspelled dungeon. Now get down on your knees and beg for mercy.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[rob_squared]

" but does it stand up to the slashdot adage that any sex is better than sitting alone in the basement?"

Unless you're a preying mantis.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[freakmn]

PDF's suck, but google can fix them.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Anonymous Coward]

but does it stand up to the slashdot adage that any sex is better than sitting alone in the basement?

And what about having sex in the basement?

Re:It just proves the old adage

[fuzza]

It's all right for you people in the American timezones, but "today" became yesterday 17 hours ago...

Here's a more useful link.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[Michael O-P]

D'oh! My bad.

Re:It just proves the old adage

[JudeanPeople'sFront]

"That which does not kill me makes me stronger".

That which kills you makes you dead, though.

Even Linus had doubts about the outcome of the lawsuit. Something to do with the American legal system being unpredictable...

False

[Coneasfast]

If anything it accelerated the use of Linux, so it is one of the best things that ever happened to the operating system.

Uh, no, the SCO thing had no effect on this, it would have happened either way.

If anything, the only good thing about this whole SCO fiasco is we had someone to laugh at during a rainy day.

Re:False

[Anonymous Coward]

His Point: CIO / CTO's doing due diligence accelerated its use.

Your Point: None

Re:False

[mikael]

If anything, the only good thing about this whole SCO fiasco is we had someone to laugh at during a rainy day.


And man, was this the longest monsoon season we ever had, since records began.

Re:False

[AviLazar]

It gave publicity to Linux - which is a good thing. Think of it as free advertisement. So yes it is a good thing....to say it would have happend either way is kind of presumptuous. Without all of this publicity, chances are the status quo would have stayed the same for a long time and by then we can't really speculate (at least I admit that I can't) if Linux would have gained a good boost or dropped like a rock in water.

Remember, the best product (not saying Linux is or isn't) doesn't always make it to the top.

Re:False

[Ohreally_factor]

Well, it also made some management types hesitate, until they were able to see which way the wind was blowing. So I think that counterbalances whatever publicity (more or less).

And as things unfolded, we learned that SCO didn't have anything substantial as far as linux goes, and probably contractually to IBM, either.

Really, it was a sideshow, a distraction. Perhaps it gave us a feeling of solidarity, being under attack and all that. And we do have SCO to thank for motivating PJ to start Groklaw. In fact, I think that's the most substantial benefit we've seen from the SCO case. Groklaw and it's paradigm of Open Source Investigative Journalism. (Note: I have been critical of PJ in the past, but mostly because of her very extreme partisanship. The time she compared Linus to a baby seal was too much.)

I can relate...

[Andrewkov]

Yeah, it reminds me of the time someone beat me up and stole my bike when I was in grade 4. Best thing that ever happened to me!

Re:I can relate...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad I could help. ;)

Re:I can relate...

[fm6]

If you hooked up with a mysterious Asian gentleman, became an expert in the martial arts, tracked the thief down, got your bike back, beat him up, made him see the error of his ways, and the whole thing got made into a movie -- then yeah, obviously it was the best thing that ever happened to you!

Re:I can relate...

[Anonymous Coward]

Was that last year?

Re:I can relate...

[EricX2]

What a coincidence, I used to beat up kids in the 4th grade and steal their bikes. It was the best thing that ever happened to me!

Re:I can relate...

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be more like you beating the hell out of the bully and riding your bike home no harm no foul. But the bully lays there in an alley beaten up and delusional, shouting at everyone that he has your bike. And then the state taking his shoes and then kicks him.

Re:I can relate...

[AvantLegion]

Yeah, it reminds me of the time someone beat me up and stole my bike when I was in grade 4. Best thing that ever happened to me!

Yeah, sorry about that. You can have the bike back if you want.

Re:I can relate...

[Anonymous Coward]

u mispelled lunix

Re:I can relate...

[Anonymous Coward]

I still have your bike.

Re:I can relate...

[Anonymous Coward]

Even then you still don't know. Maybe he missed out on a threesome with two hot movie stars because of all the fighting he was doing...

Re:I can relate...

[darthgnu]

You have to realize that however fuddish a campain is, somebody always ends up paying publicity for the other side. Microsoft is doing it, SCO is doing it and IBM is actually promoting it the "right way". No publicity is bad publicity, FUD is a lot better than getting beat up, belive me...

Not terribly suprising.

[PopeAlien]

Sco news is good news.

theres no such thing as bad publicity.

"There was a lot of due diligence around the world with people looking at the code and looking at software stacks, and all this work validated that there was nothing there, no risk, no issue," said Cohen. "The SCO court case ended up on every Web site, in every newspaper and every magazine. Everybody had to do due diligence -- you could not be a CTO or CIO and not do due diligence in 2003/2004 when SCO was suing end users," he added.

this just goes to show the strength of community involvment.. A system where the teamining bearded hordes CAN check every line of code and confirm each others findings.

Linus?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought Linus was the best thing that ever happend to Linux

The best thing that happened?

[tod_miller]

I would say that would be a Mr Torvalds if-you-please.

I woudl certainly say it was the best thing Microsoft have done for linux so far, I mean, spending all that money to legitimise and place such great precedent for future generations of linux users.

Lets all not forget to thank bill and his minions next time we fire up tux racer!

adios.

Re:The best thing that happened?

[corporatemutantninja]

That's what I was thinking. Wouldn't it be funny if the whole SCO debacle really had been engineered by MSFT?

Re:The best thing that happened?

[MarkByers]

Microsoft invested money in Baystar and that money went to SCO to pay for the lawsuits. It was on slashdot ages ago.

http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween10.ht ml

Re:The best thing that happened?

[DJStealth]

Keep in mind, SCO bought out Caldera which bought out DR-DOS with the sole purpose of suing Microsoft.

Re:The best thing that happened?

[tchuladdiass]

Actually, Caldera bought some assetts from The Santa Cruz Operation (who renamed themselves to Trantella), then Caldera change their name to The SCO Group. But you are right about Caldera buying DR-DOS in order to inherit the law suit.

Re:The best thing that happened?

[tod_miller]

Wouldn't it be funny if the whole SCO debacle really had been engineered by MSFT?

They do say fact is stranger than fiction... you wouldn't believe....

You should read /. you know!! ;-) [check sibling for link]

Re:The best thing that happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

And you think it wasn't?

What universe do you live in dude?

Everybody likes a good underdog

[J Barnes]

I've got to say that as a dumb windoze user, I paid a lot more attention to the developments in the linux community once I learned of the SCO lawsuits. I'm still sitting in a windows environment, but after being enthralled with the underdog publicity generated by the legal manuverings, I'm taking alternate operating systems a lot more seriously.

Re:Everybody likes a good underdog

[Overly Critical Guy]

Meanwhile, the pointy-haired bosses watched the legal maneuverings and saw Linux as an unsafe choice surrounded by lawsuits because of a code submission process that didn't appear to have any sort of source validation. Linus even said he doesn't pay attention to it.

Regardless of the truth behind it all, for the pointy-haired boss, suddenly the mainstream guys seem like the safer decision. I wouldn't want the OS my company depends on to be in the news for two years as its source code was questioned.

Re:Everybody likes a good underdog

[Anonymous Coward]

I like the spin.. windows good linux bad, windows good linux bad. evil linux!

Re:Everybody likes a good underdog

[J Barnes]

Is it a serious alternative for the majority of businesses? Not at all. It has nothing to do with the viability of the underlying code or any submission process...it's a matter of the legacy programs that are built into the culture of a business. However, while it may not be a viable OS for an entrenched corperate operation, there are probably a number individual users like myself who might be willing to beta test their home systems on Linux and see what the other side has to offer.

Re:Everybody likes a good underdog

[Anonymous Coward]

nice job:

Re:Everybody likes a good underdog Thursday March 10, @11:15AM 1 -1
Not true Thursday March 10, @11:13AM -1
attached to OSDL Says SCO Suit Was Good for Linux
Re:OSS piracy Wednesday March 09, @10:13AM 1 -1
Re:Support! Wednesday March 09, @10:10AM -1
attached to Making Money Using Open Source Software?
Re:Typical anti-slashdot bias *Friday January 07, @02:30PM -1
What's truly funny *Friday January 07, @02:13PM 4 -1, Flamebait
attached to Local Root Exploit in Linux 2.4 and 2.6
"Editors?" *Tuesday January 04, @07:34AM -1
attached to Interview With Richard Stallman
Slashdot reveals the inaccuracy of its reporting *Monday January 03, @03:23PM 2 0, Informative
attached to Sir Peter Molyneux?
CmdrTaco's comment *Monday January 03, @03:20PM -1
attached to Apple's Rumored Office Suite
Amusing *Friday December 31, @01:03PM 3 -1
attached to RIAA/MPAA Contractor Deploys Malicious Adware Trojans
Re:Censorship resistant networks *Thursday December 30, @04:55PM 4 0, Insightful
attached to Exeem "Successor" to Suprnova Announced
Re:Mozilla, Viruses and Exploits *Thursday December 30, @04:39PM 2 -1
attached to Microsoft Not Worried about FireFox
Re:People hate DRM *Wednesday December 29, @10:00AM -1
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Rise, brothers and sisters! *Wednesday December 22, @08:47AM 1 -1
attached to Welcome to the Future of DRM Media
So... *Tuesday December 21, @01:10PM 1 -1, Insightful
attached to Game Industry Not Bigger Than Hollywood
OSS movement = religion *Tuesday December 21, @01:29PM 1 -1
attached to Torvalds on Opening Solaris
Re:I've said it before, and I'll say it again *Friday December 17, @02:43PM -1
attached to PHP Vulnerabilities Announced
"McMagic" *Thursday December 16, @09:18AM 0, Funny
attached to Le Guin Peeved About Earthsea Miniseries
Re:A bit cynical... *Wednesday December 15, @10:06AM 1 -1
attached to What Interests High-School Students?
You don't understand Slashdot *Tuesday December 14, @01:10PM 2 -1, Insightful
attached to MPAA to Sue BitTorrent Tracker Servers
Re:Is anyone else bothered by this? *Tuesday December 14, @01:14PM 1 -1, Insightful
attached to Linux Has Fewer Bugs Than Rivals
Re:Thunderbird is missing something *Thursday December 02, @10:29PM 1 -1
attached to Thunderbird 1.0 RC1 Released
Channel One survey showed Bush winning by 10 *Sunday October 31, @10:56PM 1 -1
Re:Yes but not because of this superstitious crap. *Sunday October 31, @10:54PM -1

Re:Everybody likes a good underdog

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to see you're still modding yourself up with your other accounts. Why don't you go back to karma whoring with your bonch account you fucking moron?

Free PR is definitely good

[breakbeatninja]

SCO basically created a situation where they were the nemesis of open source software and everything it stands for. Through their frivelous claims and litigation, they hoped to boost their stock value enough for many of the bigwigs to cash out before the enevitable end (see: delisting) transpired. In the midst of all this, they obviously did not count of the amazing amount of good press and support the open source community garnered. The looming threat now is the ridiculous patent law in Europe which could potentially hinder OSS development.

Anti-lawsuit FUD

[crow]

This sounds like anti-lawsuit FUD. The message to Microsoft and friends is that they helped Linux by supporting the lawsuit. If they buy the message, then they won't continue to support SCO or others who might file similar suits.

Granted, in this case, the message may well be true, but I haven't yet RTFA.

I agree completely

[Weaselmancer]

The public flogging SCO received at the hands of their entire customer base serves as a stern warning to anyone who would try to lay any similar hijinks in the future.

"Hey Dan, this lawsuit sounds like a bad idea. Remember what happened to SCO?"

It's been wonderful good publicity, too. Nothing like showing the whole world who your allies are. The list of companies willing to back Linux (such as IBM) is impressive. Now, and thanks entirely to the lawsuit - people know that IBM backs Linux.

If Linux ever seemed fly-by-night, it sure as hell doesn't now.

Thanks SCO...

[losman]

I think one good aspect is that this suit implies tht Linux is a viable and competitive solution. I know that we all know that but when you have corporations legitimizing it makes it even better!

Thank you SCO for this! Now go off and die miserably in a corner.

Re:Thanks SCO...

[Nasarius]

Exactly. This is why I'm amazed at all the anti-Linux advertising being generated by Microsoft. It doesn't prove a thing (come on, the "research" was funded by MSFT) and it just acknowledges that Linux is a serious competitor.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Linux passed the test?

[tji]

I don't know if he is just making lemonade from the SCO lemons, or if he really has a point..

The negative way to look at the SCO thing is that it's just the beginning of a huge wave of patent infringement lawsuits that all the big boys and many little patent leaches are positioning themselves for.

The positive spin would be that Linux withstood a well funded / backed instance of that strategy, and people didn't stop moving to Linux while the lawsuit was active. So, this would imply that Linux can survive and even flourish in the face of the inevitable lawsuits.

I'm not sure which I actually believe. I think our porous patent system is transferring all the burden they should be taking unto the court system (which has been ill equipped to handle complex technical cases in the past).

Re:Linux passed the test?

[skiman1979]

well either way, I agree with point 2. It seems Linux has withstood a "well funded/backed instance of that strategy, and people didn't stop moving to Linux..." Linux is still alive and well, even in the heat of all the lawsuits. If point 1 actually is true, and there do happen to be more lawsuits by big companies against Linux, I feel Linux has a fighting chance against them as well. In the end, Linux is not a company or entity that you can sue. Sure, Company A can attempt to sue IBM or any other company into the ground, but there will still be individual users that use the operating system.

Re:Linux passed the test?

[LMCBoy]

The negative way to look at the SCO thing is that it's just the beginning of a huge wave of patent infringement lawsuits

...except that the SCO case has absolutely nothing to do with patents.

Sort of like...

[GillBates0]

pooping is good for you, because it gets rid of all the bad toxins from the body.

Sure, it feels awful while you're in there, suffocating in the ensuing stink. But sooner than you think, the job is done, the filth is flushed away into the drain, and you emerge from the bathroom...a better, improved you.

Re:Sort of like...

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats.... uh... great.

I'm gonna stick with the "making lemonade from SCO lemons" analogy the other guy made.

Re:Sort of like...

[fr2asbury]

Hmm, I've got mod points, but I don't see one that says "-1 nasty"

Re:Sort of like...

[centuren]

"Hi, my name is Bambara. I'ma 36 year old Virgo and a former killer, who's hobbies
include performing recreational autopsies, defecating, and drinking rum"

Not according to CIO's

[MLopat]

While he may make optomistic comments about the lawsuit filed by SCO, from speaking with hundreds of technical decision makers, including CIO's, the lawsuits have actually been a stumbling block in using a fullblown linux back end for alot of companies. As a CIO, you're concerned about the longterm value of your solution. And if you're the one that's penned your signature to a $5million system that is using software that may not be supported (or worse) then you can pretty much kiss your ass goodbye. Long gone are the days where "nobody got fired for buying IBM"

You can argue that there is no "safe bet" right now on platform decisions, but with all the positive marketing Microsoft has put forward in recent years, and all the negative publicity that Linux is receiveing as a direct result of this lawsuit, its just one more incentive to check out other avenues, and may ultimately be the deciding factor when a company decides NOT to implement a Linux solution as has been the case with many now Microsoft clients.

So you guys will probably mod this down to a sub terrarian level.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[PitaBred]

Can anyone say "shill"? Or at least "gross misspellings"? It may have temporarily cooled Linux deployment, but Linux has had itself proven as a solid and legal system to use through this suit. And it brought it to the attention of a lot of people who may have not even known that there was an alternative. What Linux won here was mindshare, not marketshare.

Do as the parent suggests, and mod him down to an optimistic sub-terranian level.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[MLopat]

Haha I apologize for the misspellings of optimistic and subterranean. I myself, hate reading misspelled words in posts, but in an effort to get a point across early and get some feedback, I am occasionally hasty in my editing.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[SlashDread]

You should have told them their angst can be insured: http://www.osriskmanagement.com/

Re:Not according to CIO's

[canfirman]

I agree with your reasoning, in that you want to minimize the exposure to your company. However, even you have to admit, that SCO's legal case against Linux distributors (and, I guess you can say, Linux itself) has pushed the OS battles to the forefront. Many people I know who are Windows users had not heard of Linux until SCO. Even then, they had questions.

I'd agree that, in the beginning of the SCO lawsuit, Linux sales may have been impacted. However, IT managers, industry analysts, and even the financial community is starting to understand that SCO has no basis for their claim. The risk of exposure has been minimized. (Not gone, mind you, but definitely minimized.) My belief is the lawsuit has validated Linux, becuase it means lots of people, from programmers to decision makers, have had to take a very hard look at Linux to ensure there is no exposure.

BTW, if I had mod points, I'd mod you up as "Insightful". Having a discussion from different viewpoints is a very good thing.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[ajs]

"While he may make optomistic comments about the lawsuit filed by SCO, from speaking with hundreds of technical decision makers, including CIO's, the lawsuits have actually been a stumbling block in using a fullblown linux back end for alot of companies."

I think you're looking at this upside down. How many of those people who are using this as an excuse didn't need this event to make an execuse? Would the fact that Red Hat is a new company or IBM might go back to the Windows camp or something else have been the issue otherwise? I suspect so.

There are many people I deal with who look at the giant farms of Linux servers that I interact with and say, "hey, that's scary stuff!" Invariably, they are the dinosaurs who are busy being rendered obsolete. IBM mainframes were scary stuff at one point too, and no one could understand why you would want to stake your business on a MACHINE that could make MISTAKES... until a few dozen companies made it clear that NOT going that way was a ticket to extinction.

Windows desktops were the same way.

Unix servers: same story.

Web-based business transactions: same thing.

Every new technology requires a period of early-adoptors, and we're exiting (or just starting to exit) that phase with Linux. That's a scary time. These guys see the writing on the wall, and they're trying to make any rationalization they can to avoid the descision that they know they have to make. Tough nuts, industry doesn't care about their rationalization, only results.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[MLopat]

Those are good points that you make about validation and exposure. That sort of marketing and impact is very pricey, and an open source project is probably incapable of generating that otherwise.

Unfortunately, too many of the TDM's that are around today are old and scared of change (and even more scared of being kicked out of their cushy six figure jobs)

Re:Not according to CIO's

[MLopat]

I'd rather just sell the Microsoft solution where I see it fits for the customer.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[SlashDread]

Hey, if it fits wear the shoe ;-)

I was merely responding to your observation that people were intereseted in -Linux- solutions, but are withholding out of fear.

Hugs

Re:Not according to CIO's

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahhh, so you're one of those people that believes your own small financial success is tied to the fate of Microsoft, and you'll fight alternatives because you feel personally threatened. I've seen you guys on Usenet.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[MLopat]

I do appreciate the link :) Thanks

Re:Not according to CIO's

[MLopat]

Wow you gathered all of that just from reading a perspective I wrote from the CIO's point. You really are a dipshit.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[mce]

You are right only on the short term.

What SCO has done in 2004, is put Linux in the media. What it will do in 2005, is make it rock-solidly clear that the fear of anything GPL-ed that many CIOs undoubtedly have is not valid. Once they've managed that, these CIOs will have a solid reason for considering Linux. After all, SCO will have tried and failed to break Linux.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[philovivero]

And if you're the one that's penned your signature to a $5million system that is using software that may not be supported (or worse) then you can pretty much kiss your ass goodbye. Long gone are the days where "nobody got fired for buying IBM" ....
So you guys will probably mod this down to a sub terrarian level.

Wow. Those moderators are sure susceptible to reverse psychology today.

I've worked at multiple corporations that used Linux extensively. Ones with CIOs even. You go ahead and keep working at companies that spend more money for less, and I'll work for the ones who spend less money for more.

We'll see whose company is in business next year. Oh. And keep your resume up-to-date. No reason. Just a friendly piece of advice.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[MLopat]

If you knew where I work, you'd have a smirk on your face just as I do now.

Re:Not according to CIO's

[CAIMLAS]

This is IT. There is no such thing as "long term value".

The only things that exist are "life of the contract" and "is this a closed format requiring the same supplier's next-gen product". If you don't have a new "solution" by the time your current contract runs out, you fucked up. If you picked a product that imprisions your data, you deserve a good fucking in unintended orifices for being irresponsible and a poor decision maker.

Either that, or you're not going to contract route at all. But then, you're likely a small-time ordeal.

As much as it pains me to admit it,

[idontgno]

the SCO fiasco has had positive effects.

• Gave the community a good scare, shaking off some of the complancency and reminding us that if software is a business, and you're competing in it, it's a nasty business and a bruising game.
• Made everyone re-examine the code itself, just to be sure we're clean. SCO's charges seem ridiculous, but it never hurts to audit just to be sure.
• Exposed one of the more virulent and extreme anti-OS points of view to objective examination. This examination finds that set of opinions greivously deficient.
• Firmed up the nebulous "open-versus-closed software" battlefield. Now it's harder to avoid taking a side, and those who do (Sun, for instance) have to engage in marketing and PR contortionism to do so, looking visibly quite silly in the process.
• And of course, comic relief.

Re:As much as it pains me to admit it,

[John Meacham]

Don't forget the thousands made by me and others who looked at SCOs claims, saw they were shite and shorted SCOs stock. mmmm... free money.

Re:As much as it pains me to admit it,

[ExoticMandibles]

This is another example of the "Broken Windows" fallacy. The audits and the blogging and all had an opportunity cost; doing it meant not doing something else.

Look at it this way: if the SCO lawsuit hadn't happened, would the Linux community have spent their energies the same way? They could have, but they wouldn't have, because their time would have been better spent elsewhere. So the SCO lawsuits caused the Linux community to derail its energies into projects of diminished benefit.

larry

Re:As much as it pains me to admit it,

[idontgno]

The audits and the blogging and all had an opportunity cost; doing it meant not doing something else.

Sure, it wasn't free. To the minds of some (perhaps even you), it was a waste of effort and attention and time.

But periodic re-auditing of your codebase is generally a good practice. Stop and look back. It's definitely an opportunity cost, in the same sense that good customer support is a cost center to a consumer business. It's expensive, but also essential. The overall effective cost of doing without outweighs the easily-formulated explicit cost of doing with.

So, re-examining the codebase and making sure you're clear of the current set of claims (no matter how implausible they seem to you--because your judgement will be secondary to a court's if it comes to it) can be vital. The blogging? The diversion of attention? The angst and laughter? That's just life. Blogging is going to happen. (Witness this place.) The legal eagles are the ones wasting most of their time, except for the unfortunates who have to do the aforementioned audits--and I've already explained that that's pretty close to zero-sum in cost terms. And the publicity and recruitment value! Just having IBM solidify its pro-Linux stance outweighs the distraction effect.

Yup, it cost. Everything costs. Overall, though, you can reasonably argue that it was worth the cost. Hell, the comic value may have balanced the expense of the entire dog's dinner.

Re:As much as it pains me to admit it,

[Anonymous Coward]

The audits done to see if SCO had anything did result in the removal of a bit of useless code such as some of the SGI stuff that wasn't used.

Re:As much as it pains me to admit it,

[rtb61]

I see it as mostly neutral apart from the huge blunders they managed to achieve. The exposure of Microsoft's involvement, the implied threat against the Bank of America and taking on Daimler Chrysler in that silly side issue.

The only real benefit was it demostrated the strength of support from the global Linux community, from individuals to major corporations supporting the growth of Linux.

it was even better for the bsd's

[Anonymous Coward]

freeBSD has picked up quite a fair bit of steam over the last two years. I know of a few companies that ditched linux for bsd specifically due to the sco case.

Re:it was even better for the bsd's

[advocate_one]

what we're seeing with BSD is merely post-mortem nervous activity causing the corpse to twitch...





runs for cover...

Re:it was even better for the bsd's

[yamla]

That's very strange as SCO has repeatedly claimed that the BSDs infringed on their intellectual property as well. So why would you ditch Linux and go with BSD if you were concerned about SCO?

But heck, SCO also claimed that Microsoft Windows infringed as well and threatened to go after Microsoft's customers (this was after Microsoft invested in them), so you really couldn't be safe no matter what you did.

Re:it was even better for the bsd's

[jedidiah]

Anyone ditching Linux in favor of FreeBSD simply wasn't paying too much attention to what SCO was actually saying on the matter. This kind of mentality is no basis for bragging.

Re:it was even better for the bsd's

[Anonymous Coward]

It's true that I may not be well versed on all of the tangents of the ravings of a madman from Utah. But I'll give you five reasons why people are choosing BSD over linux that are directly related to SCO.

1) BSDs already have been tested and won in court, circa 1992.

2) SCO never contributed to BSD, there GPL'd code is not "free enough" for the BSD license. As SCO never had code in the tree, there is nothing for them to claim ownership of.

3) Many companies live (and die) by risk management. The perceived risk was linux, specifically companies running linux were being targeted for extortion. BSD users were not the target.

4) Stating the BSD code was tainted, also includes some very popular products that have borrowed heavily / spunoff from BSD. ie, Nokia IPSO OS, and NetApp filers come to mind immediately. I never heard any of these referenced as issues.

5) The old standby - as managers and other assorted PHBs went into CYA mode, and techs were told .. "No new linux", we deployed freebsd. Just following orders.

Re:it was even better for the bsd's

[stor]

Anyone ditching Linux in favor of FreeBSD simply wasn't paying too much attention to what SCO was actually saying on the matter. This kind of mentality is no basis for bragging.

Without a doubt BSD would have been the next target. They *may* have enev considered hitting Microsoft if they got enough steam. At one stage Darl blathered some crap about owning C++ too.

This wasn't just an attack on Linux, it was the ultimate corporate IT manefestation of 4ll jor b4Z3!

Cheers
Stor

Re:it was even better for the bsd's

[jedidiah]

BSD isn't the target yet. However Darl has done some sabre rattling in the general direction of BSD. The fact that they already are getting their asses handed to them by the Linux community is why they haven't bothered reopening USL vs UCB.

Anyone doing risk analysis and concluding that BSD is safer than Linux in this regard is simply an idiot.

Even Solaris really isn't a completely safe option given the unstability of SCO management.

I guess so

[jb.hl.com]

I guess that it's true, the lawsuit has helped Linux, by allowing people to see the development process, warts and all; all of its benefits, all of its pitfalls. Transparency is better than nothing IMHO.

what doesn't kill you

[Anonymous Coward]

makes you stronger

Previous clangers... :)

[advocate_one]

Microsoft effectively made the biggest clanger well before when they sponsored that benchmark of NT4 server versus Linux... beforehand, there was only word of mouth for Linux, afterwards, Microsoft had raised Linux to be a real alternative to NT4 server (even though the benchmark was bad for Linux). it not only put Linux up there as a creditable alternative, it kickstarted development on the Linux kernel to fix the bottlenecks and beat NT4...

Re:Previous clangers... :)

[MLopat]

That's an interesting perspective, albeit an incorrect one. Microsoft recognized at an early stage that Linux would be a contender in the OS market and some praise should be given to their foresight. So many companies infact choose to simply not address the issue of this new platform that it would have become embarassing if a survey was conducted that showed this relatively unknown and obscure OS had eaten up 20% of the market. Microsoft pre-empted this attack early on by generating defensive evidence support Windows.

Re:Previous clangers... :)

[advocate_one]

That's an interesting perspective, albeit an incorrect one. Microsoft recognized at an early stage that Linux would be a contender in the OS market and some praise should be given to their foresight. So many companies infact choose to simply not address the issue of this new platform that it would have become embarassing if a survey was conducted that showed this relatively unknown and obscure OS had eaten up 20% of the market. Microsoft pre-empted this attack early on by generating defensive evidence support Windows.

Wow, you must be taking lessons from Baghdad Bob...

Re:Previous clangers... :)

[MLopat]

What part exactly is taken from the teachings of Baghdad Bob? If you're questioning my "pre-emptive" statement, all I can suggest is that things may have been severely worse for Microsoft had they not acted as early as they did. Missing the bus with the Internet in 1995 served an invualable lesson to them, that the senior members of MS's teams aren't likely to forget.

Re:Previous clangers... :)

[MightyMartian]

By pre-empted you mean of course MS again totally missed the boat, and is now attempting to use large amounts of FUD and pure unadulterated bullshit (like you wrote above) to keep their fingers in the server market. Linux threatens the only part of their business that's even worth spitting on; workstations running MS-Office. I doubt they'll ever be anything now but a small fish in the server world, and if they get hosed on Office, then they've got a real problem.

Re:Previous clangers... :)

[MLopat]

You really are a dipshit.

Worth spitting on? Yeah I'd say that billions of dollars in revenues from two successful business units, namely Windows and Office, are more than a drop of spit in the bucket. And if you look closer, you'll see they're still gaining momentum on the server market. You can stick your MS hating FUD up your open source ass.

Re:Previous clangers... :)

[MightyMartian]

Yes, the convicted monopolist, through sheer dishonesty, has managed to corner that market. As to Windows servers...

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Gimme a break, pal.

Re:Previous clangers... :)

[MLopat]

Your weak mind is so easily molded. I bet you love watching wrestling for its realism, or believe your president was searching for weapons of mass distruction.

Are people still using Windows and buying MS Office because Microsoft is dishonest? Does that make sense to your feeble mind? Perhaps you're not a competitive person yourself and wouldn't understand what its like to really go after something that you want.

Re:Previous clangers... :)

[DavidTC]

Would these be Windows 2003 servers? The servers that are vulerable to a LAND DoS if you expose an open port to the internet?

A DoS you can do with nmap or netcat with a forged source IP, forget requiring any special tools.

Those servers?

Linux license refund from SCO?

[3770]

Some companies bought the $699 linux license that SCO was selling.

If (or when) SCO loses this lawsuit I would argue that they didn't have the right to sell those licenses. They were selling something they didn't own.

Will the companies that bought those licenses be refunded (yeah, sure)? But could they sue SCO to get that money back? And can they win?

Did SCO protect themselves somehow in the license agreements they sold for this very scenario. They could have done that by not really selling them licenses to use Linux, but to use Caldera Linux and telling the customers that this will give them the rights to use whatever other version of Linux that they are using too.

I don't know how many that bought those licenses but I've heard some rather large numbers. We could easily be talking about _real_ money here.

Could SCO could risk a fast and swift death if they lose their lawsauit against IBM et al?

Re:Linux license refund from SCO?

[canfirman]

Could SCO could risk a fast and swift death if they lose their lawsauit against IBM et al?

Regardless if customers ask for a refund or not, I think SCO would have "a fast and swift death" if they lost. Their credability is shot, they're losing money hand over fist, and it would take a miracle for them to come out of this one - that, or a massive restructuring involving firing the upper management and trying to repair the damage to their name. A win by IBM in their lawsuit would be the death knell for SCO.

Re:Linux license refund from SCO?

[Chris_Jefferson]

Having seen (but of course not paid for) one of these licences, I can say the chances are slim. The licences just say you have the right to use SCO's intellectual property.

However, you might be able to get your money back if you could prove that SCO were threatening you with regards linux, and knew they had no actual code in there. That would be damn hard to do...

Re:Linux license refund from SCO?

[mborland]

I'd suggest that any company dumb enough to purchase these licenses got what was coming to them. Almost any lawyer would advise the prudent course of NOT responding to such a call for license payments from a third party if you've had no prior contact.

Re:Linux license refund from SCO?

[dbIII]

Will the companies that bought those licenses be refunded

Darl and his brother (the lawyer for SCO - how's that for a dodgy deal) will ensure that there is now money left for refunds, and they will no longer be associated with SCO so you won't be able to get anything out of their newly acquired millions.

At Queen Mary

[Bloke down the pub]

Speaking at Queen Mary

You don't speak at a person, you speak to them, especially when the person in question is 1) royalty and 2) dead.

Unless he's referring to the ship, in which case it should be aboard, not at.

Re:At Queen Mary

[Mindwarp]

...or of course when he's talking about The College Formerly Known (tm) as Queen Mary College, then Queen Mary and Westfield College, and now just Queen Mary.

Queen Mary

Yeah, I know. I preferred it when it was called Queen Mary College too.

Re:At Queen Mary

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless he meet at Queen Mary http://www.qmul.ac.uk/

Re:At Queen Mary

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you could "speak at" someone -- it would be like "speaking at" trees, for example -- a form of insult in that the object of the speech is reduced to non-sentience. Whatever anumus one might feel to the House of Windsor, that does seem a tad extreme.

On the other hand, if it was the *ship* being addressed, then it would depend on whether the sender and recipient were naval ships or not. If the sender was, say USS _Benjamin Franklin_, and the recipient was HMS _Queen Mary_, then the proper term is "exchange identities with". If on the other hand, a warship directs a message to a merchant ship, it simply "speaks" -- with no preposition [e.g. "We spoke RMS Lusitania"].

Of course, a merchant ship *never* initiates the conversation with the warship....

Re:At Queen Mary

[derkyjadex]

People are often said to talk at people, ie. talking in an offensive manner, almost shouting, no room for a reply, etc. Creative use of language, it's what makes reading interesting.

Re:At Queen Mary

[Anonymous Coward]

We called it QMC when I went there (back in 1972).

Re:At Queen Mary

[Bloke down the pub]

Talk at, yes. Speak at, no.

GPL is next

[selectspec]

The suit was a big help in Linux because the impending failure of SCO has boosted confidence in the Linux platform from Enterprise community.

The next real challenge will be the GPL. The GPL has yet to have its "day in court". Such suits clarify the unclear, and let's face it: there are some unclear issues in the original GPL.

Re:GPL is next

[Dan Ost]

It's my understanding that the GPL hasn't had its day in court because it's
case is so strong that nobody is willing to go up against it.

If you are aware of unclear issues in the GPL as it currently reads, please
list them. If you're right, then you're right. If you're wrong, someone
knowledgable might demonstrate to you what is wrong and all who read will
benefit.

Re:GPL is next

[selectspec]

I believe there is quite a bit of lack of clarity around certain elements of the GPL and several other "open" licenses out there. I believe the business community (for lack of a better term) would like to see these licenses tested in court around the issues of linkage was is covered by GPL and what is not, was is reasonable disclosure and what is not, etc. Law alone is no substitute for case history. I don't profess to be a lawyer, but as a business owner, I'm aware of the confusion and misgivings over this issue.

Re:GPL is next

[oddfox]

You couldn't have done us a favour and given us one simple example? It's hard to take your concerns seriously when you don't seem to care enough to clarify.

Re:GPL is next

[m50d]

It's not unclear, which is why it hasn't been tested. It is very clear on what you can and can't do, and no company with an ounce of sense on its legal team is going to try and challenge it. The only unclear part is what constitutes a derivative work, but that's a general copyright issue not specific to the GPL, so could easily be tested in some other situation. And I can't see anyone willing to be a test case for this either, for the very reason that it's unclear.

Re:GPL is next

[selectspec]

The example I discussed was linkage. In more detail:

The issue of the non-GPL modules linking to GPL modules, what "linking" legally means/implies and what happens when virtual hardware deprecates the traditional concepts of "static linking" and "dynamic linking", and how non distributed non-GPL code linked into GPL code should be treated. The issue of what constitutes a "derived work" is also somewhat fuzzy.

Re:GPL is next

[StormReaver]

The GPL has yet to have its "day in court".

A German court has already found someone guilty of infringing someone else's GPL rights (maybe someone here can link to the story). The GPL has had its day in German court, and was upheld.

Re:GPL is next

[Anonymous Coward]

The question of whether linking creates a derivative work and is covered under the GPL is the only one I can think of.

Re:GPL is next

[DataCannibal]

I can think of lots of things that haven't "had their day in court". Mainly because they are very clear, unambiguous and rock solid. Just like the GPL.

Re:GPL is next

[TuringTest]

Your concerns are valid, but testing the license in court is not the only solution to solve the problem. The GPL is currently being reworded in order to clarify those issues as well as patents and web services.

useful reference

[kebes]

I think TFA is right. The massive scrutiny that this put linux under has increased confidence in linux a great deal. If there were indeed "copyright infringements" somewhere in the source, I think they would have become very public during that case. I think other companies will not be willing to attack linux without any basis.

I think we FOSS/linux advocates can point to this case as a nice reference when making our point. We can say that linux was put under quite a bit of scrutiny, and seemd to pass the test (in terms of IP, security, etc.)...

Good for Linux? What about Linux Users?

[JPamplin]

SCO may have been good for Linux in some fashion, but it placed enough FUD into the Linux thought-space to deter many companies from trying Linux out, and literally COST some Linux users some $600 and up (whoever was dumb enough to actually pay the license fee.)

Frankly, I think the management team at SCO should be fired (or arrested) for taking a failing company on such a desperate ride, simply for market share gains (which have largely evaporated, I would hope).

Just my $.02

JP

I disagree

[bogaboga]

The best thing that happened to Linux in my opinion is the fact that Linus and his early lietenants agreed on what kind of license to use. If I were Linus, I doubt that I'd have given away all my work "for free." The GPL as a new form of licensing is the best thing that happened to Linux. It is also good to hear that it's a living document, i.e., it's being modified here and there to reflect the "hostile" environments FOSS programmers are forced to operate in.

If it were not for that license, slashdot would not have had Linux as a sub-topic and Apache would not be having the standing it has on the web. This applies to many other software that I even do not know about.

Re:I disagree

[SmokeHalo]

If it were not for that license, slashdot would not have had Linux as a sub-topic and Apache would not be having the standing it has on the web.

You're right, without the GPL bringing Linux to /., all we'd have to talk about would be Google and Apple.

Only if McBride and crew end up serving time

[NZheretic]

This will only be good for Linux if the SEC get off their arse and lay criminal charges.

Re:Only if McBride and crew end up serving time

[BlueEar]

I second that. At the moment SCO is still as arrogant and deceitful as it was before. For example, on their front page they boast the following:

SCO Ranked #1 Corporate Query Site by Google. Based on billions of searches conducted by Google users around the world, the 2004 Year-End Zeitgeist ranks SCO's corporate Website as the most searched site for the year

Never mind that people were looking at, who were those lying SOBs. SCO is still trying to make a positive spin out of it. My guess is that even if you put them in jail you'll see the following on their web site

Utah correctional facilities show considerable interests in SCO product line by inviting Darl McBride to its facilities

Re:Only if McBride and crew end up serving time

[Battle_Ratt]

Better re-run it through your spell/grammer checker, some parts just don't add up.
"Then IBM chooses to market the project with better product results and gives the axe to the among the members of the losing project team."

this guy doesn't make a point

[drunken dash]

"And look at what happened with the market share; people did not say let's wait until this thing is over. If anything it accelerated the use of Linux, so it is one of the best things that ever happened to the operating system."

I think it's pretty clear that SCO's fist-waving in no way accelerated the adoption of Linux, if anything, it slowed it. The point is, it didn't stop it. So I don't think this guy's point is valid at all, he doesn't even attempt to back it up.

Re:this guy doesn't make a point

[ebvwfbw]

Your right. He is mistaken on two fronts:

1) The code base had been reviewed, for years, by many organizations including IBM and we all knew SCO had no basis for their suit.

2) The suit harmed Linux. I know of plenty of places that Linux was not adopted. Solaris and Windows benefited.

Another more positive side effect is that it made SCO Unix scarce out there. I still get questions about the SCO lawsuit.

It was bad publicity

[bonch]

I disagree completely. It was bad publicity. It makes Linux seem like this chaotic thing with lawsuits that you might get embroiled in. Windows would be the "safer" choice.

With the issues the 2.6 kernel had this year and last, the SCO negativity was the last thing Linux needed. I think this article is one of those positive rallying cries to make people feel better, but SCO was a very bad thing for Linux. It's no longer seen as the invincible little free operating system. Its heritage was brought into question, the issue of code attribution is now on people's minds now and in the future on OSS projects, and it has the PR taint of corporations and intellectual properties in its history.

Re:It was bad publicity

[Weaselmancer]

Respectfully, I also disagree.

It's no longer seen as the invincible little free operating system.

According to the dictionary, one definition of invincible is "Incapable of being overcome or defeated; unconquerable." And up until now it's only been something that fans of Linux have claimed. Now it's something that has been shown to be true. Linux now has a legal track record. It's not hearsay anymore.

Its heritage was brought into question

Yes it was. And that solves another thing that Linux fans have always claimed - and has now been found to be true in a court of law. And also by example - SCO drained itself trying to prove the opposite, drained its investors and came up with absolutely, positively nothing. Again, now it's no longer a claim, it has a track record.

And it's a track record and only a track record that can make something seem stable. Now, thanks to SCO, Linux has one.

That $50mil that Microsoft funneled into Baystar was the best advertising that Linux could have ever hoped for. Even better than the IBM Linux commercials.

Re:It was bad publicity

[falconed]

It makes Linux seem like this chaotic thing with lawsuits that you might get embroiled in. Windows would be the "safer" choice.

You're right. Microsoft has never been named in a lawsuit and is clearly the safer choice in that respect.

Re:It was bad publicity

[Anonymous Coward]

It's no longer seen as the invincible little free operating system.

If you think being "the invincible little free operating system" flies in the boardroom, you're even more stupid and short-sighted than your history of posts lets on. "The free operating system that stands up to legal scrutiny and is strongly backed by IBM" is more like it.

Re:It was bad publicity

[MrHanky]

Oh yes, it was bad publicity, but Linux managed fine. The lawsuit was, in the end, obviously frivolous, and proved only that there's actual money behind Linux. And money is the only thing that makes Windows a "safe" bet. Microsoft has lost many lawsuits, and will continue to do so as long as the US patent system is in its current state. Windows is also a security nightmare. Windows safe? No. But it's not going away soon.

(and re: your sig -- why not use a dictionary:
R'egime \R['e]`gime"\ (r?`zh?m"), n. [F. See {Regimen}.]
1. Mode or system of rule or management; character of government, or of the prevailing social system.)

Re:It was bad publicity

[MasterOfUniverse]

Stop saying "Bush regime." You've never experienced life in a REAL regime or seen what a real regime does.

Actually I have, I have been leaving in US for last 5 years.. ;)

Re:It was bad publicity

[rejecting]

"Stop saying "Bush regime." You've never experienced life in a REAL regime or seen what a real regime does." Yeah I'm tired of black people talking about slavery, cuz they haven't experienced life in slavery or seen what real slavery is. Point being: Its a crafted statement, made to provoke a responce based on the political climate of the US.

Re:It was bad publicity

[jonnystiph]

With the issues the 2.6 kernel had this year and last, the SCO negativity was the last thing Linux needed. I think this article is one of those positive rallying cries to make people feel better, but SCO was a very bad thing for Linux. It's no longer seen as the invincible little free operating system. Its heritage was brought into question, the issue of code attribution is now on people's minds now and in the future on OSS projects, and it has the PR taint of corporations and intellectual properties in its history.

Is this is a troll? Well I'll bite. First off, I assume the 2.6 issues you are talking about the numbering issue. Without a doubt that needs to be resolved, but I highly doubt managment types delve that far into any OS.

As far as the PR taint, that "taint" as you call it, was a testing of boundaries and strengths. Linux came through in flying colors. There was legitimate proof in a court of law that all the code was accounted for and legal. That is not taint my fiend, that is pure release. Linux was poked, proded and dropped from 50 stories, it survived. The public now see's this, including managment types. This is good.

Re:It was bad publicity

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I have, I have been leaving in US for last 5 years.. ;)

You must be really out of shape, that you can't leave the US in a total of five years! Hail a cab or take the bus to take you to the airport. Or try harder!

Re:It was bad publicity

[deepestblue]

Stop saying "Bush regime." You've never experienced life in a REAL regime or seen what a real regime does.

regime:

1a. A form of government.
1b. A government in power; administration.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Re:It was bad publicity

[Anonymous Coward]

you're even more stupid and short-sighted than your history of posts lets on

I'm not sure that is possible.

Re:It was bad publicity

[Anonymous Coward]

People aren't using the term "regime" in that context. I notice you leave out the other definitions for that word. Did you people say the "Clinton regime" in '96? Next.

Re:It was bad publicity

[madstork2000]

I have to disagree with your disagreement.

Big organizations are used to dealing with legal threats, litigation and the assorted bag of legal wranglings that accompany big business.

Those large organizations are more concerned with legal risks. And since SCO has esentially taken the fall, those businesses see that the risk is now significantly lower. (remember though, its not over yet, but it does look like two outs in the bottom of the nineth.)

So bottom line is SCO challenged Linux via the IBM suit (and a few others), and has taken a beating virtually every step of the way. Because the way SCO has lost legal ground virtually every step of the way, business have gained confidence in Linux.

Granted IT MAY BE A FALSE CONFIDENCE, because the lawsuits thus far have been toward very specific breaches of older Unix agreements, and the end user lawsuits were against SCO customers.

Anyway, I am sure there are a variety of legal fronts that may be vulnerable to this type of attack. However, because of the perception of victory on the side of Linux companies who may want to sue will think twice. Since undoubtably the cost of entry into the litigation game are very high. Just how many companies now are going to want to spend $30,000,000 or more to try and knock off Linux?

At the same time, companies wanting to leave the proprietary jail of other Unices, or bolt from the cold clutches of MS will be more confident to do so, because they know Linux has been challenged and came out stronger.

Oh well, thats my take for what its worth . . . .

MS2K

Re:It was bad publicity

[lucas_picador]

Uh... okay, here are the other definitions I could find:

regime also régime
n.

1.
1. A form of government: ("a fascist regime").
2. A government in power; administration: ("suffered under the new regime").
2. A prevailing social system or pattern.
3. The period during which a particular administration or system prevails.
4. A regulated system, as of diet and exercise; a regimen.

[French régime, from Old French, from Latin regimen, from regere, to rule. See reg- in Indo-European Roots.]

Which, exactly, is the one you think is being used here?

PS: You are an idiot.

Re:It was bad publicity

[benjamindees]

Its a crafted statement, made to provoke a response based on the political climate of the US.

Actually, it's nearly a direct quote. It was used by Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld to describe the Bush Administration.

And for those smart enough to copy and paste from the nearest online dictionary, yet not smart enough to include an etymological reference: "regime" is derived from the Latin "rex,regio" which most directly translates as "ruler" but is commonly used as "king" or "kingdom".

In case it weren't obvious, the word typically has a negative connotation, especially in the US. Using it to describe a representative democracy indicates either a severe disconnect, lack of proper education, or both.

Re:It was bad publicity

[rejecting]

Your reply does not contradict my statement. If you missed it ,which may have been because i was copying and pasting from the nearest dictionary, I had MENT that the connotation be understood as negative. A bit touchy eh?

Re:It was bad publicity

[Anonymous Coward]

That wasn't directed at you, but to the nits pasting from dictionary.com and saying "look, regime just means the same thing as democracy"

Re:No one cares

[JPamplin]

Even Linus switched to Mac.

Running Linux, I might add!

what???

[absurdist]

Mr. Anderson beat you up and stole your bike when you were in grade 4?

Re:what???

[Andrewkov]

No, that's just a vague Matrix reference in my sig..

Re:what???

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently that sonic boom you heard was the response reaching mach 1 over your head.

Proust in his first book...

[Boronx]

Here's the title:

SCO was the 'best thing that ever happened' to Linux

Here's the summary:

SCO's litigation over Linux was hugely unpopular but there was a big upside, says the chief executive of Open Source Development Labs,

Here are the first two paragraphs:

The multitude of law suits brought by SCO against companies selling and using Linux has been beneficial to the open source operating system, according to one of the most influential organisations in the Linux world.

Speaking at Queen Mary, University of London, on Monday night, Open Source Developer Labs chief executive Stuart Cohen said the lawsuits were "the best thing that ever happened to Linux".

Finally, in paragraph three, the writer moves beyond the notion so succintly stated in the title.

Clueless

[mcrbids]

Open Source Developer Labs chief executive Stuart Cohen said the lawsuits [SCO suing everyone in sight over supposed issues with Linux] were "the best thing that ever happened to Linux"

Gee. Wouldn't "the best thing that ever happened" be, eh, it getting developed in the first place???

(sits and thinks...)

Isn't this premature ?

[DrStrangeLug]

There hasn't been a verdict in the case yet, and we all know the judges in the US (or anywhere for that matter) don't always judge logically. Althought it looks promising, lets wait until the end before we pop the corks on the bubbly.

Figures...

[SlashDread]

SCO sued its distributors and clients ferchrissake... No sane Unixware or Open Server user is NOT looking into Linux today.
Well, not those that switched already..

What about your own obituary?

[benhocking]

I think that qualifies as bad publicity. :)

Re:What about your own obituary?

[winkydink]

It results in a better-attended wake/funeral.

Re:What about your own obituary?

[temojen]

It worked for Alfred Nobel (twice).

Re:What about your own obituary?

[Zen Punk]

Not unless it includes the phrase "good riddance."

Re:What about your own obituary?

[aiabx]

I don't know, it isn't like your obituary will make things any worse for you.
-aiabx

Re:What about your own obituary?

[Anonymous Coward]

That all depends on whether you are dead or not.

Re:What about your own obituary?

[Sloppy]

The problem with a well-attended funeral, is the obligation it creates. If a lot of people come to my funeral, that'll suck, because then I'll have to go to all of theirs. Let's just agree: we'll skip each other's funerals, ok?

Re:What about your own obituary?

[winkydink]

At least you won't have to worry about writing thank you notes. :)

Re:No one cares

[siplus]

ya, Mac....
HARDWARE

next time, RTFA

A Ninja Must Read Underneath the Underneath

[kai.chan]

Perhaps Darl McBride intended this all along. He was sacrificing himself and his company for the good of mankind and Linux!

We are the Borg

[yodaj007]

We are the Linux.
Lower your pens, and surrender your case.
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
Your culture will adapt to service ours.
Resistance is futile.

Lawyer is irrelevant;
Budget-size is irrelevant;
You must comply.

Lawsuit is irrelevant.
FUD is irrelevant.
Your defensive capabilities are unable to withstand us.

Resistance is futile.
Your SCO, as it has been, is over.
From this time forward, you will service us.

groklaw

[Anonymous Coward]

noone has mentioned groklaw yet

Re:Yeah...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's more like:

That time I kicked the shit out of a pathetic little jerk with no muscles (who was being egged on by some filthy rich guys) tried to rape me really changed my life and made me a better person.

Re:Yeah...

[Anita Coney]

You have your cross to bare, I have mine.

WHAT?

[ocularDeathRay]

Dear Darl,
I would just like to offer my gratitude towards sco, for filing an evil 5 billion dollar lawsuit aimed at destroying the OS I love.

Thanks so much for all your help!

with love, your biggest fan, --Kelly

He has a point. It did help.

[Animats]

Somebody challenged Linux. Spent lots of money, got expensive lawyers, issued public statements, and went to court. And they got rolled over. From a business perspective, that means Linux isn't going to fold up at the first challenge.

Look where SCOXE is today. Nobody is trading the stock. Volume is down 90% since the NASDAQ listed them as out of compliance with SEC regs. They may be kicked down to the Pink Sheets next week, but they're already trading like a Pink Sheet stock.

Everybody laughs at SCO now. Business Week, Fortune, and Forbes are all very negative on SCO.

Darl was interviewed by Business Week a few days ago. Some great momments:

• Q: Ralph Yarro was terminated in December as CEO of Canopy Group, SCO's longtime financial backer, for allegedly overpaying himself. Is Ralph Yarro still on SCO's board?

  A: Yes.

  Q: Do you want him to stay on the board?

  A: Ralph has been a great board member. He's been very supportive and valuable in terms of the input he has provided.

  Q: What has he helped you do?

  A: Ralph has a great entrepreneurial mind. He's been good on intellectual property and legal battles. I wouldn't call him the architect of our legal strategy, but he clearly has added value. How that's all going to play out, I don't know.

  Q: Are you concerned about his ability to serve?

  A: We had a board meeting last week. The company needs to get some clarity about the situation. It's important to figure out who represents the Canopy shares. As long as the cloud is there regarding the Canopy situation we want to remove the cloud.

  Q: Will he stay on the board?

  A: No one on the SCO board has asked him to step down. He will continue to serve.

Canopy owns part of SCO. Yarrow used to represent Canopy on the SCO board, but he doesn't, any more. Canopy fired Yarrow. Yarrow and Canopy are sueing each other. This is clearly a dysfunctional organization, not a serious threat. They've been referred to in the press as "the gang that couldn't sue straight".

Not in every case

[Orion Blastar]

Not with HP/Compaq. I purchased a HP/Compaq laptop because I was told they are committed to Linux and will protect any HP/Compaq customer from any SCO lawsuit.

So I bought a Pressario 2500 laptop from them. I installed various distros of Linux, but none of them supported my wireless LAN device on the laptop or other hardware like the modem. I called HP/Compaq, and they told me that they do not support Linux for that laptop (apparently the salesperson I talked to that told me it did, had lied) and that installing Linux could void my warranty and that I need to reformat and put XP back on it.

So much for promoting Linux, I feel cheated.

Re:Not in every case

[stevesliva]

Knowing HP, they probably decided to not support Linux on your laptop while you were talking with the salesperson, but have now reinstated support since you talked with the support folks.

And another thing-- Void your warranty?? For hardware? That's bullshit.

Re:Not in every case

[Dan Ost]

You should raise a stink at HP about the fact that you were lied to. If your
lucky, they'll replace your laptop and/or fire the decietful SOB who lied to
you.

It's worth a shot.

Re:Not in every case

[Anonymous Coward]

"I purchased a HP/Compaq laptop because I was told they are committed to Linux and will protect any HP/Compaq customer from any SCO lawsuit.

So I bought a Pressario 2500 laptop from them."

Don't look to consumer machines for full Linux compatibility.

Re:Not in every case

[Orion Blastar]

Still no support for my wireless or modem devices in Linux. I even tried Kanoitx which is supposed to have good wireless support.

The person I talked to on the Helpdesk said that installing Linux would void my warranty. Of course they are based in India and outsourced, so they may not have known what they were talking about. It is hard to find a good knowledgeable help desk person after all the outsourcing to other countries have been done.

Re:Not in every case

[Orion Blastar]

Hah, hard to buy a laptop that isn't sold to consumers these days. Not like I can just build one of my own using off the shelf parts, like I can a desktop.

Computer makers need to be honest about if their hardware supports Linux or not, or even if it is only partial support and some devices are not supported. If I knew that, I wouldn't buy this laptop and look for another.

Re:Not in every case

[Anonymous Coward]

They can't legally do that unless they can show that Linux actually damaged the hardware such as you overdriving the LCD screen (assuming that is possible these days).

The Queen Mary, University of London

[Anonymous Coward]

"Speaking at Queen Mary, University of London, on Monday night..."

Yeah, next to where they use to keep the Spruce Goose!!!

Better analogy...

[gosand]

Yeah, it reminds me of the time someone beat me up and stole my bike when I was in grade 4. Best thing that ever happened to me!

Actually, it would be more accurate if: A bully with no friends accosted you and said you stole his bike, but all your friends, even some people you didn't know, gathered around and told the bully to get lost. He kept getting more and more belligerent, said he was going to get his big brother, but everyone started laughing at him. Even an ex-bully was on your side and gave the bully a bloody nose. He finally ran away crying, and went back to the creepy guy in the park, who had given him a bag of candy to stir up trouble because all the guy had was a homemade bike that wasn't very nice because he put it together from old parts of other bikes that he found or stole. The guy in the park didn't have any friends either because he had been a complete jerk to everyone his entire life. The creep really didn't want your bike, he just didn't want anyone else to have a nice bike. But the creep survived because he had lots of money from killing puppies and selling their souls to the devil. And he had a bad haircut. The end.

Re:Better analogy...

[AviLazar]

bwahahahah.

For those that couldn't tell:

Bully = SCO
You = Linux
Old bully = IBM?
Big Brother = Courts
Creep = Billy G
Crappy Bike = Windows
"even some people" = Bunch of people from computer community
"Your friends" = Us

Re:Better analogy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Brilliant!

Re:Better analogy...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is shear brilliance.

Re:Better analogy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, you had me until the bad hair cut. No way!

Re:Better analogy...

[Mr.Progressive]

This is shear brilliance.

Especially the bad haircut part!

Re:Better analogy...

[Ohreally_factor]

With friends like that, who needs enemas?

Re:Better analogy...

[javaxman]

Great. Now everyone thinks I'm crazy because I'm sitting in my office laughing my head off. Oh well.

Not so sure

[sad_]

Perhaps long term, but remember the trail is not over yet, it has hardly begun it seems.
Anyway, why would i make this statement? Because right now in the company i work for there is a full OSS stop, to the extreme! It is not only Linux that is infected, but all project using bits of OSS. We already had unfinished web apps rewritten from PHP/MySQL to Java/Oracle (for no other reason then to move away from OSS). Next my colleagues courses for Perl got cancelled because Perl is OSS. No use trying to explain that if we would have to remove all OSS on our unix servers we would have almost nothing left, let alone we would have to redesign about 90% of our projects already in place.
At our company there is an OSS scare, perhaps it is not all SCO related and a lot probably has to do with Patents/IP but still, the SCO trail is doing no good right _now_! (ofcourse i tried to explain that closed software can also infringe patents but they believe they will be protected by the company backing the product, never mind that most high profile OSS these days has company backing as well).
allmost made me cry, but now i'm just angry instead, damn lawers!

Re:Not so sure

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like the time has come to find another employer.

Lawsuits

[phorm]

Right... because everyone knows that Microsoft hasn't been involved in ANY lawsuits at all. *cough* antitrust *cough* *cough*eolas patent *cough*

Anyone can be sued... at least Linux was shown to be "in the right"

Humiliate them this way

[marcosdumay]

Is the best thing to do now. The case is almost over, we should assume the "what doesn't kill us make we stronger" posture.

Let's face the facts, SCO become with an empty lawsuit to make some easy money, they deserve to be humiliated. Also, just blamming what happened will lead us nowere. We sould let people know that we survived because the code is clean, that we have allies and that we learned something and are better prepared for future problems

That is the best way of comment this case. That is the only way we can use that to make Linux more respectfull.

There are some things...

[Anonymous Coward]

$5bn[Five Billion Dollars] law suit
Market Cap $250m.. oops now $70m[Seventy million Dollars]
Legal cost $9m[Nine million dollars]
$699 SCO lic 1 CPU

Judge say he found SCO's argument "puzzling"..
Citing the 'complete lack' of evidence..
PRICELESS

There are some OS you just can't sue, for everything else there's Microsoft.

Good for Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just think of the kind of ad-revenue SCO brought in for Slashdot with its bi-hourly coverage of:

a. Darl is a douche.
b. Linux will prevail over SCO.
c. Darl is a douche.

during the more intense, riveting months of this saga. Staggering, I tell you.

SCO's Crappy Product Offends Me

[Greyfox]

And I find it offensive that they claimed that any part of their barely functional operating system was stolen from Linux. Their system has always felt like a toy, hardly improved at all from the 286 Xenix days. I'll be glad to see them crash and burn and I hope their entire board gets arrested.

Eeh well that's enough snarling for me for today. How about a plug to Pete's Grand Theft Auto: Linux Tee Shirt? Isn't that the coolest thing you've ever seen? You KNOW you want one! (No I'm not affiliated with them, I just think it's the coolest thing I've ever seen and I want one.)

Can't blame the bully

[astrokid]

I would have done it too if the Creep was this sexy thing.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger

[Black Art]

"What is best in life?"

"To crush Microsoft, see Bill driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of his users! "

Lighter Side

[Deliveranc3]

Linux coders work independantly, a lot of them don't care about software patents.
Why? Because they have no incentive to, the truth is in software there is often a "best way"tm to do something and if it gets patented they'll probably trample on it.

SCO sent out a precedent, a company with massive software patents, access to the full source code, and a history as one of the founding forces behind Linux and it couldn't win!

Further Linux stood up to millions upon millions in legal fees thanks to the EFF and others.

Future cases will have to be very convincing to even GO INTO court, no scare tactics will cause companies to shell out for linux licences, and the absurdity of trying to sue software created for society was repudiated and ridiculed.

Re:Lighter Side

[Zelatrix]

SCO hold no patents. I assume you're referring to the Unix source code - yes, they do have access to that but so do IBM. IBM will have known the meritless nature of this lawsuit since it was filed - they must have researched the provenance of the Linux codebase themselves before deciding to make it a cornerstone of their business. Caldera used to have a reasonably nice Linux distribution, but I don't think you can fairly describe them as one of the founding forces behind Linux.

I agree that it will be very difficult to use scare tactics to cause companies to shell out for Linux licences in future though.

Re:Lighter Side

[fishbowl]

"SCO sent out a precedent, a company with massive software patents"

Kindly list the patents in SCO's portfolio.

Your sig

[Anonymous Coward]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

A different type of free?

[Gzip Christ]

Yes! What a great team! Linux is free and open to EVERYBODY... Just like Paris!!

I was going to say that Paris is free as in beer, not free as in speech, but that got me thinking. Linux is free as in speech because you can do what you want with it. Similarly, Paris will let you have your way with her, so maybe she is like Linux. The thing is, RMS hasn't told me to call her GNU/Paris, so I'm not really sure. Maybe we need a new saying just for people: free as in Paris Hilton or free as in Kevin Mitnick?

Yeah, I guess it was

[Ridgelift]

FTA: "And look at what happened with the market share; people did not say let's wait until this thing is over. If anything it accelerated the use of Linux, so it is one of the best things that ever happened to the operating system."

Although this whole ordeal probably hasn't changed the faith and minds of the technical community, it most certainly has garnered the attention and confidence of the general public, most of whom really don't care all that much about Linux (no, I'm not blaspheming...I'd say most people are as excited about Linux as they are about their toaster or refridgerator).

When it comes time for Joe Consumer to buy a new server, they will probably find Linux a lot more palatable than before the SCO lawsuit. And as Microsoft continues their assault on Linux, those same people will probably be able to see through their ridiculous FUD.

I also think that politicians and lawyers may see more clearly the value and strength of the Open Source community. Maybe they'll head off the SIG's that will try to thwart Linux in the legal arena.

Linux went through the fire and came through unscathed. Thanks Darl McBride for helping strengthen Linux.

Ummm...

[boola-boola]

sebFlyte notes a zdnet story thats says "Speaking at Queen Mary, University of London, on Monday night, Open Source Developer Labs chief executive Stuart Cohen said the lawsuits [SCO suing everyone in sight over supposed issues with Linux] were "the best thing that ever happened to Linux"'

Yeah... at IBM's expense. They're fighting this giant battle in the name of Linux, and paying all the legal fees. They're partly to blame for this whole fiasco though (just a teensy bit... SCO may be the fire, but a fire requires fuel [IBM] to keep burning).

Hopefully, after they win, they can have SCO front the bills ;)

sig

[themusicgod1]

Youarefullofshit,andwrong.Changeyoursig.

"Stopsaying"Bushregime."You'veneverexperienced lifeinaREALregimeorseenwhatarealregime does." Regime is a blanket term denoting a specificgovernment or type of government in power. Bush is not only in power, but the republican party and certain parts of america have promoted Mr. Bush as some sort of figurehead worthy of reproaching anyone who would think or speak poorly of him; this is sure sign of an system ordered around one person, or a system designed to have the appearance to be ordered around one person. Secondly, /. is a big place, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who have lived in or are currently living in a) martial law (ie in a military organization) b) wage-slavery (ok mabye not so common) c) virtual slavery (I've seen it, it happens) all of which I interpret you might be thinking when you say regime. So even if you weren't wrong, and regime meant something other than just a way of doing things with a specific group of people in charge, you would still be incorrect that no one here has experienced one. Hell I've seen more than one poster post from iraq! If that's not an example in your twisted view of the word, I don't know what is. But seriously, You and me, and everyone here lives under some sort of regime. Some are democratic, some are nondemocratic, some are ruled democratically by crooks like Mr. Bush. But all are regimes."R'egime \R['e]`gime"\ (r?`zh?m"), n. [F. See lamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamenessfilterfuck inglamenessfilter 1. Mode or system of rule or management; character of government, or of the prevailing social system.lamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamenessfil ter lamelamelame[1913webster]lamelamelamelamelamelamel amelamelame lamelamelamelamelamelameI dream...of the new r['lamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamenessfiltee] gime which is to come.--H. Kingsley.[1913 Webster] lamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamenessfilter{The ancient r['e]gime}, or {Ancien r['e]gime} [F.], the former political and social system, asdistinguished from the modern; especially, the political and social system existing in France before the Revolution of 1789. 1913 Webster]" lamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamenessfilter lamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamelamenessfilter dictionary.com regimealso régime Audio pronunciation of "regime" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r-zhm, r-) n. 1.1. A form of government: a fascist regime.* 2. A government in power; administration: suffered under the new regime.* 2. A prevailing social system or pattern. 3. The period during which a particular administration or system prevails. 4. A regulated system, as of diet and exercise; a regimen. fuckinglamenessfilterfuckinglamenessfilter fuckinglamenessfilter *italics are examples! fuckinglamenessfilter meriam webster 1 a : REGIMEN 1 b : a regular pattern of occurrence or action (as of seasonal rainfall) c : the characteristic behavior or orderly procedure of a natural phenomenon or process 2 a : mode of rule or management b : a form of government c : a government in power d : a period of rulefuckinglamenessfilternotice the above dictionary examples all signify quite plainly that indeed, your readers do indeed live under a regime; otherwise they'd be in some form of paradise anarchy, and I don't know of too many places that live under that kind of anarchy atm. Thispostwasuterlyruinedbythelamenessfilter.Ihateyo ulamenessfilter

Re:sig

[snorklewacker]

my god, that was pure poetry. :p

False ? Any evidence for that ?

[GreenEggsAndHam]

Because I'd love to know what it is.

Re:False ? Any evidence for that ?

[Synbiosis]

Me too. I find it amusing that some random slashdotter believes that he knows more about Linux and its market growth than the CEO of OSDL.

What I'd like to know...

[Anonymous Coward]

...is where Darl is going to end up with next. He's got a history of suing people/companies to get what he wants. What company will hire him next? One that has only patents litigation as it's business plan?

if sco was good for linux then

[Anonymous Coward]

the church of state is good for christanity.

It was the best thing that happened to me!

[HogynCymraeg]

Now I'm legally using Linux and it only cost me $699!!!

Re:Good for OSRM too?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this a troll? OSRM had tons of money to make off of the FUD surrounding SCO. I wouldn't be suprised if they were the source of some of the FUD, as well.

post kinda useless

[baratunde]

It would have been nice if the poster bothered to include WHY this guy said it was the best thing ever, rather than throwing such an extreme out-of-context statement to the wind like that i.e. "says SCO lawsuit was the best thing to happen to Linux... because it forced the entire community to do due diligence on the code base and generally raised awareness of Linux...."

Shhhhh!!!

[benjaminchoate]

Don't say that so loud!! They might sue for their cut!

Speaking of underdogs.

[kinema]

If you're in need of a serious underdog take a look at Hurd.

Re:Speaking of underdogs.

[strider44]

the under-chiwawa of the operating system industry.

but it still beats ...

[porky_pig_jr]

being an aborted fetus. Or may be not?

Re:Yeah...

[dbIII]

You have your cross to bare, I have mine.

We really don't want to see your tattoos.

So the obvious question is...

[real gumby]

Should OSDL send every SCO shareholder a letter thanking them for their donation so that these shareholders could write it off?

Funny.

[Anonymous Coward]

If a lawsuit was "the best thing that ever happened to Linux" then Linux has surely had a sad and pathetic past...

Whoa

[StarKruzr]

Is this what "intelligent design" actually refers to? The idea that God set in motion and guided the Big Bang, formation of galaxies, planets, evolution, etc.?

Re:Whoa

[name773]

not in my definition... i think design implies that God made everything deliberately. the grandparent's wording was a bit ambiguous and could allow for either interpretation.

Re:Good for Linux? What about Linux Users?

[Anonymous Coward]

Arrested maybe, but how can you suggest firing? SCOXE is still trading well above pre lawsuit levels.

***Warning! This post riddled with metaphor!***

[Anti-Trend]

Pride comes before the fall, or so they say. We (when I say 'we', I mean the entire FOSS community) need to remain vigilant, perhaps more so than ever. This $50,000,000 Microsoft bullet, fired indirectly at Linux through a Saturday night special called SCO, may prove to be a mere test shot. 50 million may seem like a lot, but it's cash that could get lost in Gates' couch. If they're willing to use those obviously underhanded and thinly-veiled methods of eradicating Linux, they'll almost certainly go much farther. We cannot afford to let our guard down, as our enemy is prone to sucker-punching. We must address real problems with Linux if and when they arise, and pursue innovation over mere equivalency. After all, the only way to truly overcome a product so widespread as Windows is to render it totally, painfully and obviously obsolete.

Hold on...

[ledow]

"Speaking at Queen Mary, University of London, on Monday night, Open Source Developer Labs chief executive Stuart Cohen said the lawsuits were "the best thing that ever happened to Linux"."

Damn... that's my old university ('cept it had a slightly longer name back then). Why do they send me letters asking if I want to go to some boring old lecture on chaos theory but not the ones that I'm actually interested in and would have attended if I'd known about them?

HI BONCH!

[Anonymous Coward]