The SCO Boomerang and the Strength of Linux

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."

Comments

There's a reason it wasn't tested in court

[Anonymous Coward]

The GPL is so robust that, when violators are confronted with it, they invariably fold. It has been a complete non-issue. Even SCO does not argue that the GPL is invalid, only that the FSF and IBM haven't enforced it fairly.

The GPL is a work of sheer genius.

Re:There's a reason it wasn't tested in court

[Corpus_Callosum]

The license itself may be a work of sheer genius, but the idiotic, uncompromising fanaticism and elitism of the GPL crowd drives people away.

They generally are uncompromising, elite fanatics. But I would hardly call their behavior idiotic. What drives every GPL swinging fanatic is the lucid realization that if the source is closed, the software will eventually rot and die. Why would anyone in their right mind want to depend on anything that is guaranteed to rot and die? If we take software to be the bricks and mortar of the world's communications and data infrastructure, then we also have the additional variable of control. Do you want private companies controlling world infrastructure? These are the central themes of the open-source religion and for people that give a damn, they are strong themes.

Free software is not always the solution. Proprietary software does not need liberation. You can't make as much money with open source software as you can with closed source software. Making profit is a good thing.

If the proprietary software is something that is expected to exist for a long time, participate in public data infrastructure and/or is of very high importance, then there are some very compelling arguments that it should indeed be liberated.

It is not even completely clear that you can make more money with proprietary software. The largest and most profitable computer company in the world is open-sourcing practically everything these days, they believe it is good for business. You know the one, with three blue letters?

Re:Bonded more tightly than ever, huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bitkeeper along with Apple's lack of contributions back to the BSD community (yeah yeah "darwin, darwin", I mean compared to IBM's and other ppl's contributions linux) has to be the best example of why the GPL kicks the ass of these other licenses and off proprietary.

Mention anything in favour of the GPL and some BSD troll will try and make out that you are some group-thinking slashbot who hasn't considered the issues. But no, I have considered the issues, and the GPL works out damn fine.

And on another BSD troll issue, they always look down on linux because it's a "toy". Yeah well let's just have a look at the troubles in FreeBSD 5 then hey? Linux, although certainly not perfect (take note of what I just said please), is nothing to sniff at technically.

Now I don't mind the BSD licence, it's cool. Most BSD guys are cool (again take note). I just hate that part of the BSD culture which looks down it's nose at the GPL like anyone who supports it is some script kiddiot. There are reasons for it, damn good reasons.

And yes there are linux ppl trolling BSD also, but they are normally full-on joking rather than being serious like the BSD elitist trolls. "BSD is dying" isn't half as bad or serious as some poncy "you are an inferior being because your linux "distro" is a toy next to the awesome power of my SMP implimentation on my *BSD box"

fuck em if they can't take a joke.