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The SCO Boomerang and the Strength of Linux

Posted by timothy on from the kumbaya dept.

karvind writes "PJ of Groklaw has written an insightful article on benefits flowing from SCO's litigation: GPL stands up in court, the community bonded more tightly than ever, encouraged increased support for FOSS and last but not the least heightened awareness of the benefits of using GNU/Linux systems. Article is also on Yahoo and NewsFactor."

2 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. GPL by Lehk228 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The GPL was not "tested in court" the lawsuit was a contract dispute between SCO and IBM. Though i think it may have resulted in a few more PHB's hearing about linux and maybe being curious how it could save money to switch.

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  2. Re:There's a reason it wasn't tested in court by mrhartwig · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually, no. IBM makes more money off services than either HW or SW. I didn't find their 2005 annual report quickly, but the trend toward services (vs. HW) has been going for several years now; here are the 2004 revenue numbers:
    • Services: $42.6 B
    • HW: $28.2 B
    • SW: $14.3 B
    • Financing: $ 2.8 B
    • Other: $ 1.1 B

    Adding that up, it looks like services top HW & SW combined.

    I believe IBM's use of OSS to leverage their services business is quite relevant. I do suspect that the majority of their services don't have anything to do with OSS, but my (uninformed) opinion says the % is growing, and will continue to grow for a while.