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SCO to Unix developers, We want you back

NoGuffCheck writes "CRN is reporting that Darl McBride is looking to get Unix developers back onboard with cash incentives for completing training in SCO's new mobile application kit; EdgeBuilder. It doesn't stop there; there's a 12-cylinder BMW or $100,000 dollars for the development of the best wireless application."

134 of 427 comments (clear)

  1. Ah, but there's a catch... by Joey+Patterson · · Score: 5, Funny

    * All developers are required to pay their $699 SCO licensing fees at the door.

    1. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by The+Snowman · · Score: 5, Funny
      All developers are required to pay their $699 SCO licensing fees at the door.

      It isn't a licensing fee. It's the price of paying the SCO lottery! For the low low price of $699, you have a chance at one of several fabulous prizes including $100k, a luxury car, and a night of terror on Darl's private yacht complete with built-in dungeon! Fun for the whole family!

      --
      24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
    2. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by gbulmash · · Score: 5, Funny

      Luring a developer to code for your products: $100,000 and a BMW.
      Finding out developers still hate you passionately: Priceless

      - G

    3. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by Goblez · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Hahaha, this is the truth right here. Who else read this title and thought (In the words of the great Borat) "F*#k To You". Alienate the whole *nix community, and then try to bribe them back. That'll ensure you get the 'right' people on your team.

      Well . . . maybe right for SCO

      --
      - Kal`Goblez
    4. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by IAmTheDave · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Aw, baby... look, you know I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just... sometimes I get so angry. You make me really angry sometimes. But I love you - I love you. I won't hurt you again, I PROMISE. I'm going to get help.

      "Yeah, I know it's happened before, but it won't happen again - I swear! Come back home baby."

      --
      Excuse my speling.
      Making The Bar Project
    5. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by peragrin · · Score: 5, Informative

      In order to get that car you need to sign a contract with SCO. Any code you develop belongs to SCO because any code that runs on unix is a derivative work. Oh and Contracts are what you use againist your friends.

      Yes SCO is claiming such things in both the court of public opinion and sometimes in the court as well.

      Any laid off developer would be better off collecting unemployment and staying out of SCO's lawyers reach.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    6. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unix developers to SCO: Die in a fire.

      (We want the insurance money)

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    7. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by alexfromspace · · Score: 5, Funny

      Exactly. Furthermore, if you read the fine print on the other side of the second appendix to the last page of the contract, it says that SCO, in addition to owning you, will also own your wife, children, dog, truck and home, because they are all your derivatives. Although the wife has a legal option to divorce and seek custody of the children, the SCO also realises that this may be bound by any prenuptual agreements, and they reserve the right to challenge any such 'weak' and 'inconvincing' prenuptual agreement in various courts.

    8. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by NickFortune · · Score: 4, Insightful
      You may be prepared to find that the supposed hatred is all talk when a recently-laid off developer gets a new car wafted under his nose.

      Ooooh... I don't think anyone's prepared to find that. 'course I don't think it's going to happen, so the preparedness probably isn't an issue.

      I expect that they'll probably find people to come work for them. Not because of any automobile inspired conversion on the road to Damascus, but just because some people will be desperate enough to work for someone they hate. But they'd have to be desperate. And if they're wise they'll get they're money up front, because SCO probably won't have anything to pay them with by the time development finishes.

      Only of course they can't can they? Because it's a "prize", and you don't award prizes until the end. So I guess they'd have to be gullible as well as desperate.

      I still don't think anyone's going to stop hating them though.

      --
      Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
    9. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by mknewman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This has got to be the most schizophrenic company I've ever seen.

    10. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by Danse · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I expect that they'll probably find people to come work for them. Not because of any automobile inspired conversion on the road to Damascus, but just because some people will be desperate enough to work for someone they hate. But they'd have to be desperate.

      I'm sure that they might get some desperate people, but I also think they'll get some ignorant people, and some people who share their lack of ethics.
      --
      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
    11. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by badasscat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Who else read this title and thought (In the words of the great Borat) "F*#k To You".

      I just thought it must have been missing a few words:

        SCO to Unix developers: We want (to shoot) you (in the) back

    12. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by CastrTroy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm sure there's enough computer programmers out there that don't know about the whole SCO fiasco that they would gladly go and work for them. Probably not any programmers with real Unix/Linux experience, but there are a lot of developers out there who don't know about this stuff. Not everybody reads slashdot.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    13. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Insightful

      True right until they Google SCO.
      How many developers will go to work for a company without typing their name into Google.
      How many people with ANY experience with Unix don't know about SCO.
      Finally there is a major danger having SCO in our work history. Even if they loose this law suite which I bet they will someone will buy the SCO IP. Would you risk hiring a developer that worked for a company that filed such outlandish IP based law suites? Not everyone has the deep pockets of IBM.
      I think that working for SCO might just be too dangerous for just about anyone to risk.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    14. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by artifex2004 · · Score: 4, Funny
      "Aw, baby... look, you know I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just... sometimes I get so angry. You make me really angry sometimes. But I love you - I love you. I won't hurt you again, I PROMISE. I'm going to get help.
      "Yeah, I know it's happened before, but it won't happen again - I swear! Come back home baby."


      Once again I am beaten to the punch.

    15. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by NickFortune · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I also think they'll get some ignorant people, and some people who share their lack of ethics.

      I think they'd still have to be pretty gullible or very foolish. I really don't think anyone's going to get paid for their work here.

      --
      Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
    16. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by budgenator · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just think about how good it will look on your resume when you apply for a job as a developer in the Linux shop down the street!

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    17. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by NickFortune · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Probably not any programmers with real Unix/Linux experience,

      Aye, there's the rub!

      there are a lot of developers out there who don't know about this stuff.

      See, if they were finding it easy to hire coders of the required standard, then they'd hardly need to pull a stunt like this one in order to attract talent. And if they are having problems todays job market where there are still coders unemployed from the dot bomb crash, then I suspect word must have pretty much permeated the *nix community.

      Unless of course the whole thing is purely a scam to bilk developers out of their fees. That I might believe.

      Personally I think I'm tending toward Option C: "Both of the above"

      --
      Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
    18. Re:Ah, but there's a catch... by afaik_ianal · · Score: 2, Funny

      Pointless comment! Mod parent redundant!

      What's that smell? Ahh crap... I think it's both our karmas burning. :(

  2. Let me be the first to say by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Funny

    BWA HA HAHA

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  3. What a waste by ThinkingInBinary · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is such a waste of their time. Do they really think anyone is going to take them seriously? Sure, a few misguided folks might, but, as far as I know, SCO's reputation is now squat in the tech industry. Besides, the incentives SCO offers probably won't be enough to pay off the lawsuits that SCO will file against you before you've finished your app.

    Perhaps they should create a contest for "most creative way to destroy SCO" or something like that instead. It'd be much more fun. (Although seeing who actually enters this contest might be interesting.)

    1. Re:What a waste by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What I would like to know is why is HP & MySQL helping to finance this?!? What a way to get company blacklisted - especially a GPL project.

    2. Re:What a waste by tomstdenis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Dude, most people will do anything for a buck. It's why we have shitty products on the shelves, crap service at every turn, etc, etc. I'm certain SCO could score an entire division of developers within weeks if they simply offer cash money.

      that doesn't mean we have to buy what SCO is selling though!

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    3. Re:What a waste by malraid · · Score: 5, Funny

      SCO should make a reality show. A reality show about a company going to the ruin. Then we could get people to call in (1-900 number of course) to decide who they are going to sue next. I'm sure it'll be a hit. In fact, I'm of to the patent office right now. That's about the only way I see them making any money.

      --
      please excuse my apathy
    4. Re:What a waste by gbulmash · · Score: 5, Informative

      What I would like to know is why is HP & MySQL helping to finance this?!? What a way to get company blacklisted - especially a GPL project.

      I looked at TFA, the SCO contest site, the SCO site, and NONE of it said MySQL or HP was sponsoring this contest. It did say there would be MySQL and HP training at the SCO forum, but that doesn't mean that the training is provided by or sponsored by those companies.

      SCO is trying to promote its alternative to LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) with SCAMP (SCO, Apache, etc.). But because it can easily acquire and redistribute all of these components under the GPL and even offer its own support and training for them, it can make things look official when they're really not.

      I'd need some more evidence than an unsupported post on /. that MySQL is giving any aid or comfort to the enemy before I started modifying my opinion of the company or their software.

      - G

    5. Re:What a waste by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also... I hope the people who do take part realize that by doing so, SCO could claim ownership of every piece of code they ever have written, or ever will write. Give them $100,000 with one hand, sue them for $1.5Mil with the other if anything they ever do makes a profit. That appears to me to be SCO's current MO, and I can't see why they'd change it for this one little competition.

    6. Re:What a waste by mlefevre · · Score: 3, Informative

      Doesn't seem unlikely given that they entered into an agreement with them last year, as reported on Slashdot and elsewhere. The news release about that is on the MySQL site.

    7. Re:What a waste by moexu · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'd need some more evidence than an unsupported post on /. that MySQL is giving any aid or comfort to the enemy before I started modifying my opinion of the company or their software.

      Here you go:
      http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/news/article_ 948.html

      --
      "Seek first to understand." - Socrates
    8. Re:What a waste by FurryFeet · · Score: 3, Informative

      Here you go. Just click on the "Sponsors" tab.

    9. Re:What a waste by CODiNE · · Score: 2, Interesting

      SCO is trying to promote its alternative to LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) with SCAMP (SCO, Apache, etc.).

      Nice name there! I thought you were making that up, but they actually named their product SCAMP. Here it is, straight from my dictionary:

      scamp 1 |skamp| noun informal a person, esp. a child, who is mischievous in a likable or amusing way. a wicked or worthless person; a rogue. DERIVATIVES scampish adjective ORIGIN mid 18th cent.(denoting a highwayman): from obsolete scamp [rob on the highway,] probably from Middle Dutch schampen 'slip away,' from Old French eschamper 'flee the battlefield,' from champ 'field.'

      Wow! Amazing marketing there... sign up today for SCO's highway robbery!

      --
      Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
    10. Re:What a waste by Kadin2048 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sounds great. One thing though: we're going to need to fire Darl McBride and replace him with Ozzy Ozborne. And Hulk Hogan will be the CFO ... do you think we could get Paris Hilton as head of HR?

      Actually, we'd better be careful; the company might not go into the ground as quickly that way.

      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    11. Re:What a waste by SwellJoe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      HiThere is right about taking a job with shifty companies, but there are a lot of other reasons to simply avoid this kind of deal.

      I've had occasion to deal with good folks and bad in running my own business, sometimes taking on projects I didn't really believe in (not particularly evil or destructive, just not in a direction that I felt was worth pursuing and thus a waste of my time) in order to pay the bills. These projects often promised far bigger returns than more fun, interesting, and good projects. However, in almost every case, I wound up spending more time and money on the project than anticipated and getting less money in the end. The companies footing the bills reneged on promises, disappeared into insolvency, redirected their efforts midway through the project (while I'd turned down other jobs in anticipation of this one being extremely long-term and high demand), etc. Sure, a strong contract (which is often where the first hints of trouble come up--getting the contract signed before work begins is often like pulling teeth with this kind of company...everything is always upbeat and enthusiastic, but discussions are long and fruitless). This is all very vague sounding, I know, but in seven years of running my first business I learned something very important:

      The fact is, if you're doing what you believe in, you're far more likely to make a sustainable living than if you're taking on big money but shifty projects or jobs.

      "Shifty" is the vague bit here. Seemingly large and hugely successful dotcom boom companies have often been the ones that wasted the most of my time and effort and made me feel far less satisfied with my work. On the other hand, one of the more pleasant work experiences was for an internet pornography company. They're probably the largest such company in the world now, but it was relatively small back then. I could tell immediately that the guy running the show was technically savvy, understood his needs very well, and had the authority to sign off on the work and pay for it; and I could see that our work could vastly improve the performance of his website, and thus his customer satisfaction, at a good price. The point is that the good projects and jobs are straightforward, clearly defined, technically sound and interesting, and payment is well-defined (and usually fair--not too high, not too low). Contests, commission-based pay, projects that you can see are clearly foolish and won't generate profit for your client, projects to create one-off software that already has a large market leader in the field with thousands of users, etc. are all warning signs of a bad deal for you no matter how good the payment looks. Further, those who are most ready to give you everything you ask for in initial negotiations are also probably the most difficult to deal with (and least likely to pay you enough to cover the time spent on them, and most likely to cause trouble during the actual contract signing).

      What I'm trying to get at, is that in the real world, you can probably make a living working for people like The SCO Group. But you probably won't enjoy it, you'll probably get paid less than you deserve for the soul-sucking work, and you'll probably lock yourself into doing jobs for companies just like The SCO Group in the future. Not just because you have The SCO Group on your resume, and good tech companies will look down on you for it (which many will), but because your experiences will be in making oddball poorly designed products for a shifty company--the situation will demand that that's what happens with your project, even if you're a great developer. Working for a good company with a good vision leads to good products and your subsequent job offers will get better over time rather than worse. Go for good companies that do things you can believe in, even if you have to start out making less than the shifty company is offering. Working on something great is far more valuable to your longterm economic success than being paid an exhorbitant wage for working

  4. monkeyboy by namekuseijin · · Score: 5, Funny

    "developer, developers, developers..."

    use the Ballmer mantra, Darl. you have to sweat like a pig to convince your audience...

    --
    I don't feel like it...
    1. Re:monkeyboy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hopefully at some point in the future we can see him squeal like a pig...it probably won't convince anybody, but it will probably be more satisfying than watching him sweat like a pig.

  5. Ring Tones? by neonprimetime · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "SCO has gone through some rocky times. It's been a real roller coast ride the last few years," McBride said. But SCO is now focused on making mobile business transactions easier to implement. Ring tones for cell phones has become a $1 billion market, McBride noted.

    So they go from something meaningful to Ring Tones? That's one crazy roller coaster.

    1. Re:Ring Tones? by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think this really shows McBride's level of understanding of the business he runs.

      --
      This guy's the limit!
    2. Re:Ring Tones? by mackermacker · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not surprising at all... SCO is now like VRML, a technology that was always looking for a purpose, rather than technology trying to solve a purpose. It almost reminds you of this company in the year 2k in SF, Istorage I want to say? The original business model was to provide 25MB of FREE storage space that you could access anytime! BY 2002, they had become a design studio or something.

      Companies have to keep rolling, so the executives can keep the money and options going.

  6. Reminds me of... by TheDarkener · · Score: 4, Funny

    CLICK HERE and win a FREE IPOD!!!!!!!!111

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  7. 12 Cylinders? RTFA. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    RTFA. The article says 10 cylinders -- not 12. That's probably the svelte M5.

  8. For $100,000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    You can almost buy the company with that nowadays can't you?

    1. Re:For $100,000 by WindBourne · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not even close. You would have to buy out MS's and Sun's share. And I do not think that you can afford that.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    2. Re:For $100,000 by Salsaman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well done for spotting the catch. They pay you in SCO shares !

  9. UNIX Developers to SCO by winkydink · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bite me!

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  10. Unix developers to SCO:Suck it by turbosk · · Score: 4, Funny

    A pox on any and all who would sign on to duh-arl's 2-bit shakedown fart of a company.

  11. UNIX Developers to SCO: by tokki · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go fuck yourself.

    1. Re:UNIX Developers to SCO: by jbeaupre · · Score: 4, Funny

      Uh, it's kind of creepy thinking how this might be "informative"

      --
      The world is made by those who show up for the job.
    2. Re:UNIX Developers to SCO: by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 3, Informative

      I think it adequately informs Daryl of the industry's opinion of him and his company.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    3. Re:UNIX Developers to SCO: by ThousandStars · · Score: 4, Funny
      I guess I've been beaten to the headline inversion jokes:

      UNIX Developers to SCO: We want you dead.

      UNIX Developers to SCO: Lick our nuts.

      UNIX Developers who are channeling Steve Ballmer to SCO: Go fuck yourself. (Throw chair)

    4. Re:UNIX Developers to SCO: by at_slashdot · · Score: 2, Funny

      I would say it's "insightful" because that's exactly what SCO did to themselves.

      --
      "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
  12. Obligatory article nitpicks... by ThinkingInBinary · · Score: 5, Informative
    Linux is an open-source version of Unix designed for Intel chips.

    No, it's a clone of Unix, and it is no longer designed only for Intel chips. It was originally designed just for the 386, but now runs on anything, including your toaster.

    SCO is now concentrating on allowing businesses to create "biztones for quick distribution of business information, tied to business applications."

    What the hell is a "biztone"?! Is it some sort of ringtone for your cell phone where instead of ringing it goes, "Yeah, um, about those TPS reports..."?

    1. Re:Obligatory article nitpicks... by EvanED · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think that if they want to be known as something other than the one who sued prominent Linux users they should DROP THEIR CLAIMS AGAINST LINUX! If you want to be known as something other than the company that sued prominent users of Linux, it might be helpful to not sue them. That way they can be known as something other than the company that sued prominent users of Linux.

    2. Re:Obligatory article nitpicks... by Kelson · · Score: 2, Funny

      instead of ringing it goes, "Yeah, um, about those TPS reports..."?

      You did get the memo, right?

    3. Re:Obligatory article nitpicks... by confused+one · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They can't drop their claims against Linux now. It's gone too far. To drop the claim would be to say they sued everyone for no cause and wasted the court's time (the courts would not look kindly upon that). It would be handing the various companies a guaranteed win on all the counter suits, which aren't likely to go away just because SCO says, "Oops, our mistake. We did not mean to inconvenience you. Please pretend this never happened." They're in for the long haul, and are undoubtedly going to be trounced, torn apart and their management held legally responsible for making fraudulent claims.

    4. Re:Obligatory article nitpicks... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's still the right thing to do.

      I'm sure if McBride quit right now, he could find some job that someone would take him for, somewhere. It might be McDonalds, but it would be a living.

      As it is, well, you said it, they will undoubtably be torn apart. All this tells me is that like Enron, the execs who made all the fuckups will get off with a warning and a pile of cash, and the hard-working people who never liked the company in the first place will get the shaft.

      Which means, he may ultimately win, but I doubt if he can sleep at night.

      Which reminds me -- one of the benefits of a small business is that you know everyone, from the smallest file clerk to the owner of the company. It means you have a much more personal motivation to make the company succeed, or to go down with the ship. It's a lot easier to jump ship with a large severance package if you only really know other people who can do the same... and the US government supports Big Business.

      It's too late for conspiracy theories, though, I'll need my sanity tomorrow. Draw your own conclusions, Slashdot.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  13. I think somebody should go for it by TLouden · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...and then give most of the money to the FOSS community. In fact, why not use that community to fund itself using this bounty?

    --
    -Tim Louden
  14. They're prepping for the shareholder lawsuit by wiredlogic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It is inevitable that there will be a shareholder lawsuit as SCO makes its final circles around the drain before bankruptcy or liquidation. Darth Darl needs to make it look like he made his best effort at keeping the company afloat to have a chance of keeping all of his money.

    --
    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
  15. If I'm the only developer by Alien54 · · Score: 2, Funny
    do I get all the prizes?

    Quick, everyone send them the programer you hate working with most .... this should improve morale appropriately for most companies out there

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  16. Lost trust by theonetruekeebler · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I don't think they will be able to find enough developers that will trust them. They're already trying to steal the work of countless others, the sentiment goes, why would we try to do business with them again?

    This is why their former customers are not going to be future customers, unless they're badly locked in on some 3rd party software. And non-customers will never become customers. Who wants to do business with somebody who'll sue you for moving to a competitor's product? It's like getting divorced from a gold-digger.

    --
    This is not my sandwich.
    1. Re:Lost trust by gihan_ripper · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm sure there are plenty of less-than-ethical developers who wouldn't scoff at the potential of a BMW (note the article says 10-cyclinder whereas the summary says 12-cylinder) or the $100,000. Developers don't own their work, so the question of stealing work becomes irrelevant. The relevant question is whether an SCO manager will just give the cash prize to his nephew.

      To reiterate: developers aren't clients so the trust question doesn't arise, or at least takes a different form.

      --
      Phoenix, Boston, Little Rock, see a pattern?
  17. 20% extra for the lawyers. by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 3, Funny

    You need more cylinders to pull the extra dead weight

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  18. Prisoners dilemma by jbeaupre · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sounds like a versio of the prisoners dilemma http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/prisoner-dilemma /

    Except in theis case it's developers avoiding working for SCO. But the less who do, the better the chances for someone else to get the prize. So there's an incentive to break ranks. Maybe be the one and only developer.

    Think of it as a lottery with your integrity against winning a fast car.

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
    1. Re:Prisoners dilemma by dbc001 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      taking a grand from SCO doesn't have to cost you your integrity. there's no commit to do any development is there? just go through the training. sleep through it even! or is there some fine print that i missed?

    2. Re:Prisoners dilemma by FreeUser · · Score: 4, Insightful

      taking a grand from SCO doesn't have to cost you your integrity. there's no commit to do any development is there? just go through the training. sleep through it even! or is there some fine print that i missed?

      You have a contractual relationship with a company that is on record for stating that contracts are to be used as weapons against their customers/partners/employees.

      Sign a contract with a venemously litigious company like SCO and unless you have a lot of capital to spend on lawyers (one hell of a lot more than the $1000 they're offering), SCO owns your ass (and any code you write might well be considered "tainted").

      --
      The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
    3. Re:Prisoners dilemma by NickFortune · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Think of it as a lottery with your integrity against winning a fast car.

      I think even as sole contestant, the odds are against anyone winning these prizes. For a start, I don't think the money is going to be there by the time it comes to payout. Although I don't expect Darl would have any qualms about standing up and saying "Sadly none of the entries reached the professional standard we were looking for, so we've decided to withold the prize until we get an entrant the meets the minimum requirements." Where the requirements are the sole decision of the judges, of course, and where Darl is the judge. I mean he hasn't shown any great reluctance thus far when it comes to blatant dishonesty or borderline fraud.

      But I expect they'll keep the rights to the code in any event, unless it gets awarded to IBM in lieu of compensation. Hmmm... what do you want to be the IPR from this boondoggle is going to be owned by a separate company to SCO, hmm?

      --
      Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
    4. Re:Prisoners dilemma by LihTox · · Score: 2, Funny


      taking a grand from SCO doesn't have to cost you your integrity. there's no commit to do any development is there? just go through the training. sleep through it even!

      Sign a contract with a venemously litigious company like SCO and...SCO owns your ass (and any code you write might well be considered "tainted").

      Maybe my mom should sign up: she's not likely to write any code SCO would want (or any code at all, for that matter), and she can sleep through most things.
  19. MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! by ThinkingInBinary · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hmmm... on a completely cough random topic, I think I might switch from MySQL to Postgres.

    HP, I could care less about (their computers are cheap, and their calculators are nothing like they used to be), but I thought that MySQL had a decent set of morals. The fact that they could maintain enterprise support while still offering an open-source version is an indication of that. (Although I believe some of the MySQL products are available only to enterprise customers, which is evil.)

  20. Not worth it. by moultano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    100,000 dollars would certainly be nice, but I think the potential loss of my immortal soul is the dealbreaker for me.

    1. Re:Not worth it. by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 2, Informative

      what profits a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his immortal soul ;)

      --
      âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
    2. Re:Not worth it. by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 2

      More accurately:
      "For what profit has a man, if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? or what will a man give in exchange for his life?"
      The book of Mathew chapter 16 verse 26 ;)

      --
      âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
    3. Re:Not worth it. by Provocateur · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, you could pick up chicks with a car like that.

      Oh, wait this is Slashdot...
       

      --
      WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    4. Re:Not worth it. by brilliant-mistake · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You'd never see the 100k anyhow. They're a bunch of con artists. They'd take your work and turn around and sue you probably.

  21. It's a trick! by roman_mir · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sure sure, use their products to build your applications, and then they will give you your new shiny BMW and 100,000 bucks. And then they'll sue you for all your money and the BMW. This is just a trick, they want customers with money, so they can sue them. How do they actually get customers with money? Give them the money!

    I think they need a reality check: perpetual motion is not possible in this universe.

    Maybe this is just money laundering, they give you the money, write it off as expense. Then pay their lawyers by letting them to sue the people with the money and the BMWs.
    They must be avoiding taxes with this somehow!

  22. Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! by PFI_Optix · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm confused by this post. I just have to ask you to clarify...

    Are you saying that MySQL is immoral/evil because they *gasp* charge for some things they invest time and money to develop, or is my sarcasm meter broken?

    --
    120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
  23. Well... by Cleon · · Score: 5, Funny

    You gotta give 'em credit. It looks like SCO is finally trying to produce something more substantial than subpoenas.

    --
    Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
  24. Maybe Darl has something... by Target+Practice · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those darn CRN folks, always leaving parts of the quotes out. Here's a reprint, I put Darl's original comments missing from the report in '[]'.

    "During the last 25 years, SCO has been committed to [destroying the reputability of] the Unix platform and continues to reaffirm its commitment [to make fools of ourselves while the rest of the world actually accomplishes something useful]," Darl McBride, SCO president, said in a teleconference Tuesday morning.

    I applaud him for finally admitting what his company has been doing. Of course, he can shove his BMWs up his /dev/null.

    --
    There's a 68.71% chance you're right.
  25. Sorry SCO by Mancat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not 1994 anymore. Nobody uses UnixWare or OpenServer. Those that do, probably want out as fast as possible. Your products are obsolete: Your hardware support sucks. Standards implementation sucks. Didn't you just get USB support in UnixWare a couple of years ago? Nobody is even worrying about whether or not their software will compile on your operating systems these days. You've alienated the entire Unix market systematically.

    You're DEAD. Get over it. File chapter 11 and liquidate those assets already.

    --
    hello dear sirs my name is jamesh i are india (bihar) can u guide me install red had linux 9?
    1. Re:Sorry SCO by Brunellus · · Score: 4, Informative

      File chapter 11 and liquidate those assets already.

      I always thought that chapter 11 was "reorganization" and chapter 7 was "liquidation"

    2. Re:Sorry SCO by irenaeous · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You are absolutely right. I worked on SCO systems as a contractor for TACO BELL for a few years programming and maintaining their back of house software used on PC's in the store. They had an effort to create a windows based in-store system, but that has been abandoned. Now, they are porting their back of house applications to SUSE Linux with a view to getting off of SCO systems as soon as they can. The same is true, I believe for their fellow Yum brands company, Pizza Hut.

      This latest move by SCO is desperation -- trying to find some new market in which to stay alive while their bread and butter UnixWare and OpenServer business withers and dies. SCO is going down.

    3. Re:Sorry SCO by Rey+Willie · · Score: 3, Informative

      You are mostly correct. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is generally a controlled liquidation of the entire company (Ch. 7 also applies to certain personal bankruptcy cases). Chapter 11 is the "reorganization" chapter, where in theory, firms divest themselves of underperforming businesses, restructure their debt and return lean and mean. However, there are Chapter 11 cases where all of the assets of the business are sold in bulk, which looks a lot like a liquidation.

      Of course, this theory doesn't really reflect much of what goes on in the Bankruptcy Courts, but that is another discussion.

  26. I have a few SCO customers.... by SwedishChef · · Score: 4, Interesting

    and they can't wait for their apps to make the move to Linux. One customer - and this is an end user - is talking openly about the "end of SCO". Another moved to an application running on an IBM i5 (the modern version of the AS400). If there is any cost involved to an upgrade or a fix, SCO customers often just move on to another platform. There is now an entire mini-industry involved in converting data on SCO servers to some other server.

    Besides, even the latest versions of SCO/unix seriously suck. We swapped out a tape drive in one and it took days to get it running and required lots of phone time. Until I started on this project I had forgotten how difficult Linux was in 1993; that's where SCO is now.

    Plus no bash shell. No up-arrow command scrolling. Arggh!

    --
    No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
  27. Roller coast ride? by 10Ghz · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "SCO has gone through some rocky times. It's been a real roller coast ride the last few years"


    "Roller coast ride" implies movement both up and down. So I don't think that the term applies to SCO. "Falling like a rock" is the term I had in mind.
    --
    Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  28. This is Darl's "Cover my ass" strategy by denis-The-menace · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now that the stock price is in free fall, He needs to have something to show that he and his cronies were not out to use SCO stock "Boiler Room" style (http://imdb.com/title/tt0181984/) when the stockholders sue. This way, he'll be able to say: "We tried to make a go at it and nobody wanted to develop for our platform...".

    --
    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
    1. Re:This is Darl's "Cover my ass" strategy by Secrity · · Score: 3, Informative

      It what way do you mean "free fall" when speaking of SCO's stock price?

      SCO's stock is currently at $4.30, which is about where it has been since the the climax that occurred in 2004. Today's stock price is almost smack dab in the middle between the 52 week high and the 52 week low and today's trading volume so far has been 250 shares. Current price is the same as it was when it opened today. I would call this the doldrums rather than a "free fall". Large amounts of SCO's stock is held by a very few number of people and few outsiders want to buy any, which means that the stock trading volume is generally very low and the price is steady. I wonder if there is anything, short of losing two appeals after losing to IBM, that will significantly impact SCO's stock price.

    2. Re:This is Darl's "Cover my ass" strategy by Clovert+Agent · · Score: 3, Interesting

      SCO criticism is mostly all valid, but this is just wrong. SCOX has been holding steady at ~4.20 for months and months - it's all insiders peddling tiny volume. It was in freefall, oh, a couple of years ago, but it's stable now and it ain't going anywhere.
      http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SCOX&t=5y&l=off&z= m&q=l&c=

  29. Darl's sadness by Geno+Z+Heinlein · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... Darl McBride is looking to get Unix developers back onboard with cash incentives...

    Wow. When you have to pay a community reknowned for volunteerism and hacker fascination, that's just profoundly sad.

  30. SCO changing its image by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    From the article:
    The SCO Group is trying to become something other than the company that sued prominent users of Linux.
    At this point I doubt that will ever happen.
  31. bmw, huh? by vortigern00 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The winner of the bmw may notice that no matter how many times he washes it... it just won't come clean.

    1. Re:bmw, huh? by kpainter · · Score: 2, Funny

      This reminds me of an old BMW joke:

      What is the difference between a BMW and a porcupine?

      On the BMW, the pricks are on the inside.

  32. Disappointing... by GillBates0 · · Score: 4, Funny
    SCO is also offering a 10-cylinder BMW car or a US$100,000 cash prize for the developers who use the toolkit to produce the best wireless applications

    I was kinda hoping they'd offer SCO Linux Licenses as the top prize. On the other hand, with $100K, you can buy 143 of them, at $699.00 each!!!

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  33. Re:SCO and a comeback by tokki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If he's such a good sales person, where are the sales? If he's "speaks the language of business", then were are the revenues? If he's so good an incentives, where are the developers? Where are the quality people?

    The toughest job in tech right now must be a SCO sales person. The swear words they must have learned from cold calling...

  34. Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! by FreeUser · · Score: 5, Interesting

    HP, I could care less about (their computers are cheap, and their calculators are nothing like they used to be), but I thought that MySQL had a decent set of morals. The fact that they could maintain enterprise support while still offering an open-source version is an indication of that.

    I'm confused by this post. I just have to ask you to clarify...

    Are you saying that MySQL is immoral/evil because they *gasp* charge for some things they invest time and money to develop, or is my sarcasm meter broken?


    No, I think he means mysql is evil because they are sponsoring SCO's disgusting attempt to buy their way out of the history books and back into mainstream corporate and technology circles. I happen to agree...MySQL is more evil than companies like HP et.al. for the very reason he cited: they are in the free software community, they know the issues, and they certainly cannot be ignorant of how Darl McBride and SCO tried to steal GNU/Linux from its creators (yes, steal, because if McBride et.al. had succeeded in their fraud, the creators of the Linux kernel, and perhaps the wider GNU community, would have been denied the right to legally use their own creations), and they've chosen to sponsor this despite that knowledge. At least a big company like HP may not have followed this (all the SCO bruhaha could be beneath their radar).

    I agree that sponsoring an evil knowing its full implications is an act of greater maliciousness than sponsoring an evil in ignorance of its full implications, and MySQL certainly appears to fall in the former category.

    It's a pity...I actually like their product. Time to give postgres a gander I suppose.

    --
    The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
  35. Ain't gonna do it by tommasz · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was almost intrigued enough to head over to SCO's site just to see what "biztones" are, but then I realized I don't have all afternoon to scrub my browser clean.

  36. Dear SCO by vinn · · Score: 5, Informative

    Dear SCO:

    We don't like you. You don't play well with the other children on the playground. We think you're mean and we're not going to let you play dodgeball with us at recess.

    Besides that, your products are pretty awful. The only redeeming quality of Caldera Linux was that it was based on RedHat. That made it really easy to completely dump your distribution and go to RedHat when you guys got out of the Linux game. Your OpenServer product is the the most god awful piece of crap ever sold. It's so painful to work on that I'd rather just gouge out my eyes with a spoon.

    Please just go away.

    --
    ----- obSig
  37. Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! by ThinkingInBinary · · Score: 2, Interesting

    First, my major point was that any company that sponsors SCO or their activities is evil.

    Second, what I was saying is that, given that MySQL's business model involves, for the most part, giving away software and selling support, and given that they've gotten a lot of help from open-source developers, I think it would be better and nicer if they gave away all of their software, and charged for support, just like they do with the MySQL database itself. I would wager that the higher-end enterprise stuff is pretty complex to configure, and most companies would be happy to pay for support instead of wandering around trying to figure it out themselves.

  38. What kind of apps would be appropriate? by aapold · · Score: 3, Funny
    • Some possibilities...
    • License revenue tracker
    • Legal Fund Donation App (allows people to make donations and track who donated what
    • Press goodwill scanner - monitors RSS feeds and gauges amount of positive and negative stories on a given subject
    • Job Search / Resume submitter combined app...

      • hmmm any others?
    --
    "Waste not one watt!" - CZ
  39. Re:It would be wise to take advantage of this . . by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Whoever bought the rights from the creditors would then retain the rights. In the current environment where you can patent "flat cylindrical device to affect forward and reverse movement" and sue anyone with a wheel, I don't think the purchaser would release to public domain. Of course, at that point, they obviously couldn't use it to wedge up Linux, so not sure what other use it would have. Probably would have a few lawyers just sit on it, looking for ways to sue others.

  40. Correction in regards to offered prize by Acid-Duck · · Score: 2, Informative

    The article clearly states it's a 10-cylinder bimmer, not a V12

  41. Mysql + SCO???? WTF by brennz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.sco.com/products/mysql/

    This is disgusting.

    Mysql AB should be ashamed of themselves for this blatant support of an OSS attacker.

    Postgresql
    +better ANSI compliance
    +ACID
    +not a toy database
    +doesn't support SCO finances

    Make your move today!

    1. Re:Mysql + SCO???? WTF by evil_Tak · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Is there anything that actually shows Mysql is supporting SCO? Or is SCO just using their product the same way it's using Apache and perl and PHP?

      Kind of ironic that they call themselves a 'SCAMP' stack...

  42. Biztones... by no_pets · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My former CIO would definitely go for a "biztone". Basically he already had them except that they were text messages that would be paged to some of us in the department. Various (quasi-)informative messages such as "Day End processing completed", "payroll processing completed" and "interface XYZ has failed", "interface XYZ restarted automatically". Stupid shit like that. He'd probably assign them all a separate "biztone" or something.

    Of course we had fun with it. We made up our own messages such as "lunchtime", "time to go home". He was such a PHB. I'm sure other PHBes would like biztones as well.

    --
    "A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
  43. Where's the upside? by CodeMasterPhilzar · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Let me see...

    I suppose I could develop an app on either my Red Hat or Suse boxes, then port it over to SCO. But you know, I'll just bet I'd have to pay about $700 for that "privilege."

    Then I'd submit it... I'll bet buried in the "contest" rules somewhere is a clause about their getting rights to use or expand on any or all submissions. So my IP would essentially become theirs.

    The only even remotely "up" side of this is that I'll bet my app would stand a fair chance of winning just 'cause there'll be so few entries.

    On second thought, maybe I'll just go buy $695 worth of lottery tickets and a six pack...

    --
    --- Just another Code-Monkey
  44. Unix developers to SCO: No thanks by eldoo77 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't believe that this is going to work...

  45. It's all about the pitch by Illserve · · Score: 2, Funny

    First prize... is a 12 cylinder BMW

    Second prize... is a hundred thousand dollars

    Third prize... we steal your code

    ABC

    A Always
    B Be
    C Coding!

  46. Not a 12-cylinder BMW by W2k · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's actually a BMW M5, which has got a V10 engine. The article summary is wrong.

    --
    Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
  47. Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! by saider · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's a pity...I actually like their product. Time to give postgres a gander I suppose.

    Voting with your wallet, eh?

    --


    Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
  48. Porting NetworkManager to SCO by sagei · · Score: 2, Funny

    I would like to hereby announce that I am porting my baby, NetworkManager, to SCO in order to reap the $100,000 offer. We will easily make "best wireless application."

    --

    Robert Love

  49. 3 E-Z steps to SCO ressurection - serious by davidwr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Step 1: drop silly lawsuits
    Step 2: apologize
    Step 3: Entire executive team and anyone else who supported the lawsuits resign and disgourge yourself from any lawsuit-related profits, such as profits from short-selling.

    Do that, and I'll consider helping them out. Until then, they are blackballed.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  50. Old joke by tbone1 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Naturally SCO would pick the BMW; it's the car of candy-@ss lawyer-thieves.


    What's the difference between a BMW and a porcupine?

    The porcupine has pricks on the outside.

    Thank you! I'm here all week! Tip your waitress! Help her back up!

    --

    The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
  51. Anything good about UnixWare or Sco-Me? by HighOrbit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can somebody who has actually used either UnixWare or OpenServer say if they have any redeeming qualities at all? From what I've read, they are actually the least capable of the modern unixes or unix-clones, even on x86(except perhaps for minix - which was just a teaching project anyway). Is there any reason why anybody would choose UnixWare or OpenServer for a new deployment?

    It sounds like they think they have is a niffty middle-ware stack for cellphones and they want to use that as a hook for selling their Unix stuff. But if their middle-ware stack is so niffty that it would attract developers, why not port it to other systems to widen the audience and build a new business on that? That was the strategy taken by 'old SCO' aka Tarantella before they unloaded unix on Caldera.

    Can anybody comment (intelligently) on their middleware?

    1. Re:Anything good about UnixWare or Sco-Me? by Alan+Hicks · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Can somebody who has actually used either UnixWare or OpenServer say if they have any redeeming qualities at all?

      I'll do what I can to the best of my ability. One of my clients has an OpenServer box, but it is very old and even predates the buyout of SCO UNIX by Caldera. Therefor most of my knowledge is rather dated and may not apply to what is current.

      From what I've read, they are actually the least capable of the modern unixes or unix-clones, even on x86(except perhaps for minix - which was just a teaching project anyway). Is there any reason why anybody would choose UnixWare or OpenServer for a new deployment?

      OpenServer is a joke compared to modern UNIX and UNIX work-a-likes such as Linux or the BSDs. Clients I've known who have had OpenServer have invariably migrated away from it with one exception, and they will likely do so soon. Those people who are still using OpenServer are doing so not because they necessarily choose it, but because they chose some proprietary application for their business that was created to run on SCO OpenServer during it's hayday.

      For example, my client has been using OpenServer for probably close to ten years. They purchased it as part of a software package to handle certain needs. The company that produced this software is still in business, but no longer supports OpenServer. This has created a need for my client to migrate away from OpenServer, though perhaps not from the specific software. Naturally they will be involving us in their evaluation of a new software suite to handle their needs, and OpenServer will be immediately shot down. Even had The SCO Group never sued Linux users (we actually got one of their cease-and-desist letters) we would not consider them for the following primary reasons:

      • Lack of hardware support
      • Lack of software support
      • Uncertain future

      The last is a bit of a misnomer. I'm almost 100% certain that OpenServer will cease to be developed at all within the next two years and will probably be abandonware Real Soon Now. Even if there was only say a 20% chance that SCO will loose it all, why would anyone bet their hard-earned cash on something with those odds when other products are equally fit for the task and don't have one foot in the grave?

      It sounds like they think they have is a niffty middle-ware stack for cellphones and they want to use that as a hook for selling their Unix stuff. But if their middle-ware stack is so niffty that it would attract developers, why not port it to other systems to widen the audience and build a new business on that? That was the strategy taken by 'old SCO' aka Tarantella before they unloaded unix on Caldera.

      Probably because their middle-ware is really vaporware. I mean come on! Custom ring-tones? Even if the ring-tone business is as big as they claim to be, I have a hard time believing corporations will be interested in "biztones". IMHO, custom ring tones are popular only to teenagers and people in their early twenties. These people are not business managers and probably aren't involved in business beyond starting the timer on the fry cooker. Moreover, The SCO Group doesn't have any established means of targetting this crowd. The SCO Group has always been a business-to-business corporation, not a business-to-consumer corporation. This entire move reeks of a company attempting to convince others that they are innovating and breaking into a whole new market with a new killer product. Of course, they don't have the means to do this, so even if it is feasible for some one to do, it isn't going to be The SCO Group that accomplishes it. Other businesses know this, so SCO tacked on the whole "we're courting UNIX developers with huge prizes including a new BMW and/or $100,000".

      --
      Slackware, what else when it must be secure, stable, and easy?
  52. I'm stuck with OpenServer by Craig+Ringer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    OpenServer (at least v5.0.5 which I have) is weird. It's better documented than Linux is and can ever hope to be - the docs are more consistent, more accurate, more complete, and better written. It's also incredibly stable in most ways - but with a few REALLY annoying quirks. As it's also stable in the same way a fossil is (What, buy and upgrade? Get bent), that's frustrating. It also has some incredibly annoying limitations, a set of developer tools so bad they boggle the mind (and the alternatives aren't great either - haven't got Skunkware's gcc WORKING yet), and some basic services we're used to just being there ... well ... aren't. Oh, and printing on SCO is one of the worst messes I've ever had the misfortune to work with - it makes Linux printing look like heaven, and it's pretty awful too. If you now feel the need to scour your eyes with steel wool, you're not alone.

    I maintain an OpenServer box for work only because of a legacy app that requires it. Well, strictly, the app requires Microsoft Xenix to run - it's from 1983 (!!) - but SCO OpenServer's XENIX kernel personality does the trick with a few quirks. OpenServer at least supports PCI, >16MB RAM, and >512MB disks, unlike XENIX. (OpenServer 5.0.5 actually supports up to 2TB disks/arrays, >137GB ATA disks, etc. Not bad for an OS from 1995). If it weren't for that need - which Linux can't satisfy even with the defunct ibcs project - I'd be rid of OpenServer in an instant. Linux 2.6 isn't as stable as I'd like, but that's worth it ... and there's always Solaris as an alternative.

    I can't imagine anybody buying OpenServer now. Its only purpose is legacy support. Unixware doesn't even have that. Before Sun released Solaris for free, they had a tiny sliver of hope from people who need more stability than Linux provides ... but with a free Solaris, they're just doomed. RHEL and so on help a fair bit with regards to stability in Linux too - something which also doesn't help SCO in the slightest.

    Even if their technology wasn't obsolete crap, who on earth would buy from a company that sues its own customers? Oh, wait, I use Microsoft software at work and I'm well aware of its involvement in the BSA & BSAA so that's no argument at all... but the obsolete crap point holds.

    1. Re:I'm stuck with OpenServer by schon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I maintain an OpenServer box for work only because of a legacy app that requires it. Well, strictly, the app requires Microsoft Xenix to run - it's from 1983 (!!) [...] - which Linux can't satisfy even with the defunct ibcs project

      I've just finished moving a company from a similar thing. It required some modifications to x286emul, but it runs flawlessly (and *much* faster) on Linux than on OpenSewer.

  53. Just for the record ... by Keyslapper · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hope we see some mention of this illustrious event in a future slashback posting ...

  54. Is Darl an "Engineer" by phunctor · · Score: 2, Informative

    Israeli intelligence has come up with some interesting applications for cellphones. Is that wireless enough?

  55. RIP DEC by Kadin2048 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's Shrewsbury, actually. Although I doubt there's anyone there anymore to get offended. I don't know what's in Digital's old building, but they're long gone from that area, as are most of the old Boston-based minicomputer companies. (Data General, Prime...so many others.)

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  56. My Bad - Mysql and HP are NOT SCO sponsors! by FreeUser · · Score: 4, Informative

    iirc, it was SCO who paid mysql money for them to support SCO users, not the other way around.

    Right. I went back and read TFA, and Mysql is NOT sponsoring this. Neither is HP. They are offering Mysql and HP "training," and smearing those company's names in the eyes of those who don't read carefully enough (the poster I replied to, and myself to name two).

    I stand corrected: Again, MYSQL and HP are NOT Sponsors of SCO's laughable ploy, and probably have nothing whatsoever (or as little as possible) to do with SCO.

    --
    The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
    1. Re:My Bad - Mysql and HP are NOT SCO sponsors! by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I stand corrected: Again, MYSQL and HP are NOT Sponsors of SCO's laughable ploy, and probably have nothing whatsoever (or as little as possible) to do with SCO.

      Bullshit. Google for SCO Forum 2006. Click the "sponsors" link. Read that HP is a Platinum Sponsor and MySQL AB is a Gold Sponsor. Now, that may mean $10 and $5 respectively, but you can bet your butt they're letting SCO use their names in the advertising.

      Your idea of "as little as possible" covers a whole lot more than mine.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    2. Re:My Bad - Mysql and HP are NOT SCO sponsors! by whoever57 · · Score: 3, Informative
      Right. I went back and read TFA, and Mysql is NOT sponsoring this.

      They may not be sponsoring the wireless cr*p from SCO, but MySQL is clearly identified as a "Gold Sponsor" of SCO Forum 2006. See this page: Warning: Flash

      While on the subject: that page must qualify as one of the most pointless uses of flash ever! And are they entering a competition for the ugliest front page to their website?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  57. Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! by HiThere · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've called for support on their printers...and they ended up on my "do not buy" list.

    Yes, it was an end-user printer. So? I rate a company based first on my experiences with it, then on reports from other people. That inevitably means that if their consumer products are shoddy, I will consider the company a manufacturer of shoddy goods. And HP isn't quite there...the printer is cheap, but not shoddy. Their technical support, however, is shoddy.

    I don't expect the kind of quality from a commercial product that I expect from a professional level product, but if a company cheats one set of users, then the company is a cheat and cannot be trusted with a more expensive purchase. It's true that some companies beleive in only cheating the mass-market customers...or at least that there are voices that proclaim so. (But voices are cheap, and astroturfing has been with us for a long time, and I don't know WHO wrote the post I'm replying to.)

    OTOH, HP *used* to make quality merchandise. When it did so, it advertised the fact. I still remember their ad about the HP-51 (I think it was) calculator that fell off the hood of a jeep in Alaska, and was buried in the road all winter, chewed up by a snow-plow the next summer, and still worked. Been a long time since I've seen one of those ads.

    I remember the disk drive company (not HP) back when auto-parking heads first came out that noted at the show that the drive they were running from had fallen down two flights of stairs onto a concrete loading deck while they were unpacking the exhibit. (Well, that's not remarkable anymore, but at the time it was startling.)

    Computers have, in general, become more durable. HP seems to have been defying the trend. Perhaps their very expensive models are better...but I prefer to get to know a company through inexpensive purchases. If they work out, then I move them up the purchase pyramid. I rarely buy something expensive from a company as my first deal with them. HP has been moving DOWN the pyramid. They used to be near the top. Now ... well, I still buy replacement ink-jet cartridges with their brand on it. Until I chose my next printer. After that they are likely to be totally OFF my purchase list. And it's their technical support that made that final difference...but it was decreasing quality that got them moved NEAR to the bottom.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  58. Elbows to the Rescue! by bratwiz · · Score: 2, Funny



    Yeah, but SCO doesn't need any of that stuff...

    I on the other hand would propose to ram a wireless, internet-controlled ...

    "seven foot asbestos filled, napalm coated broken Galiano bottle covered with sandpaper, spikes, barbs, hooks, old rusty razor blades, used syringes, electrically charged copper coils, anonymous pubic hair, and curare that's playing Amazing Grace like a barbershop quartet with feelin' and Boston Pops' orchestral accompanyment using the Vienna Boys Choir to keep time, so the bunch of line backers ramming it in and playing with the dials, buttons, keyes, joy stick, knobs, mouse and conducting baton that all adjusts the intensity, depth, rate, length and HARDNESS can push in proper rhythm while moving through a temporal loop putting it all through eternity, then back to the beginning to start again ..."

    up Darrel McBride's ass, and also the respective asses of all the executive assholes at SCO-- and their lawyers-- TWICE... with FEELING

    (** credits to "elbows" mailing list many CPU cycles ago...)

  59. Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! by mytec · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ...and they've chosen to sponsor this despite that knowledge

    One could also say that MySQL is supporting their customers who may not have a choice of platform. If I understand correctly, MySQL was supported on SCO and than it wasn't for a time and now it is. I doubt all administrators of SCO systems drink the Kool-Aid SCO offers and would love to switch platforms but cannot due to money, personel, or software that would need to be ported. Sometimes transitions start in phases and running MySQL on SCO might be the start (or an intermediate step) of proving that the existing system can be moved to another platform. I applaud MySQL AB for sticking by customers who are in a less than appealing situation. Someday those administrators or DBAs may find themselves in different jobs and they will probably be more likely to choose MySQL AB products if those products aren't already in place. Additionally if these people choose MySQL sometime back, having the support from MySQL must have been a relief for a number of reasons.

    I don't believe users should have to suffer for someone elses mistakes but the big point here, to me, is that MySQL AB is supporting its users and isn't that what we want from any company or source of our choice of tools?

  60. Are you kidding? by PhreakinPenguin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    After everything they've done to shit on open source, they have the balls to announce this? Unbelievable. And if anyone here participates in this then you should never speak about open source again. Nor should you ever bitch about anything MS does, because participating in this would be the biggest sellout of all time.

    --


    My sig of choice is Marlboro
  61. How can they afford to pay the $100,000? by Captain+Sarcastic · · Score: 2, Funny

    Me, I'd worry that they'd hand you a cashier's check for $2,000,000 and ask you to send the change back to their new corporate office in Lagos.

    --
    Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
  62. Seinfeld - The Smelly Car by slashflood · · Score: 2, Funny

    It is more like the Seinfeld episode The Smelly Car

    "The strong body odor of a valet is left in Jerry's car. Jerry is forced to try to sell the car, because the odor has taken a life of its own and permeated everything. George is turned by Susan's new outlook on life. Susan's friend is swayed to heterosexuality by Kramer, though later turned back off by a whiff of a jacket that Kramer borrowed from Jerry. When the car can't be sold, Jerry winds up leaving it and the keys out on the street."

    IIRC, it was a BMW.

  63. Two bottles of whining. by SlashdotTroll · · Score: 5, Funny

    two re-hired SCO developers telnet to the SCO server after a night in the basement.

    arroot: so...
    SCOdev: what?
    arroot: how 'bout scheduling a grep job to see if there is any SCO IP in Linux?
    SCOdev: are you crazy?  what if the server is logging and the resource throttle triggers an alarm to the CEO?
    arroot: but I love you so much.
    SCOdev: it's too risky.
    arroot: pleeeeease?

    *login*

    IBMdev: SEC said it's "ok" to give the AIX repository a grep job, or SEC will come down to perform a grep job, or I can do it.  But for Gates' sakes don't use /bin/wall to echo your chat to all the terminals.

    --

    I am the nightmare of nightmares.

  64. Not me by waif69 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I still have SCO on 5 1/4" disks. Now if I can only find my 5 1/4" drive...

    1. Re:Not me by dhalgren · · Score: 2, Informative

      Coding was SO much more efficient back then. Today it would take many feet of tape.

  65. FALSE! HP and MySQL are ''GOLD'' sponsors by jabbo · · Score: 3, Informative

    of the SCO conference... see http://www.caldera.com/2006forum/index_flash.html and click on 'Sponsors'. So at the very least, MySQL AB is sponsoring SCO's conference

    Quote from TFA:
    > To draw Unix developers back into its embrace, SCO is offering cash incentives for
    > developers to attend its upcoming user group conference in Las Vegas in August.

    Quote from promotional materials for the above user group conference:
    > SCO and MySQL AB have teamed to create the ideal applications platform SMB and
    > replicated/branch enterprise computing environments. With SCO and MySQL, you gain the
    > competitive advantages offered by both open standards and open source.

    MySQL AB is listed as a 'Gold' sponsor and the preceding is the copy for that placement.

    --
    Remember that what's inside of you doesn't matter because nobody can see it.
  66. Darl McBride - may you rot in hell by pbegley · · Score: 5, Informative

    Darl -

    Hi, its Paul. You don't remember me because you weren't associated with SCO at the time, but I was an SCO developer and beta tester 'back in the day'. I ran a public access SCO UNIX system in Philadelphia. I (helped) run the UNIX SIG on CompuServe and converted a bunch of applications so they ran on SCO platforms. On the commercial side, SCO UNIX ran construction management and engineering procurement software for a $500MM project (it no longer runs on SCO).

    Not any more, Darl. That ship has sailed. I'm a 50 year old, bald, bearded engineer and I'm mad as hell at you Darl. I will do anything in my power to make sure you fail. I grep'ed through old source code just to find prior art (and I still have source from 1984).

    I'm not alone Darl. We are the decision makers now. Money and cars don't cut it. Your goin' down, Darl, and the harder the better.

    Your pal,
    Paul

  67. Re:troll? by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Sticks and stone may break my bones, but mods will never hurt me. :)

    I just don't get the whole BMW/MB thing. They still look like cars my grandfather would drive.

  68. Its all in the terms and conditions, lol by mlwmohawk · · Score: 4, Informative

    I won't post the link, because SCO shouldn't boast "users" because of this, however.....

    Some nice items:
    "You must be a qualified developer with the .Net and Java development platforms, having developed on those platforms. You must be able to demonstrate proficiency with these platform languages and may be asked to submit an example of Java application you or your company has developed."

    So, they can say you are not qualified because they have given no criteria about what is or what is not qualified.

    You need this much machine:

    "a. Memory 768MB, HIGHLY recommend 1GB plus
    b. Windows XP Pro or Windows 2003 server (Windows XP Home will not work)
    c. Processor speed - faster the better, at minimum should be Pentium (P4 class) 1.8 - 2.0GHz plus.
    d. If firewall software is installed, it must be configurable.
    e. Need to be able to disable anti virus software"

    This would require having Windows XP Pro or 2K3 Server, no thanks.

    It would cost more than $1000 to get to vegas, stay at a hotel, make sure you have the software & hardware needed.

    So, $1000? Not worth it.

  69. You'd /hope/ so! by Morosoph · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A friend of mine who is a freelance engineer found that an engineer at one place he was contracting hadn't heard of Linux (this was a few months ago!)

    If you act automatically, send in your CV, stay within "course boundaries" etcetera, it can be amazing what you miss!

  70. Re:Did anybody want to? by Jeremi · · Score: 2, Informative
    Let's say you start distributing your old BeOS install disks. The company which owns the IP on BeOS can sue you, but by showing that the product is no longer commercially available, you should be able to avoid both criminal and civil penalties.


    I've never heard of any law that says that you are allowed to violate copyrights simply because the product is not commercially available. The copyright holder might not have as much motivation to sue you, since they weren't making money off the product anyway, but you're equally culpable either way.


    Yes, the code is out of your reach, but you can redistribute BeOS with relative impugnity.


    I believe you are wrong about that. It would be nice if the law worked that way, but AFAIK it doesn't.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  71. I wonder? by BCW2 · · Score: 2, Funny

    After legal fees, will SCO have enough money to buy a 4 cylinder BMW?

    --
    Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.