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US Trustee Asks To Send SCO Into Chapter 7

Several readers including Pop69 inform us that the US Trustee's office has asked to convert SCO's Chapter 11 bankruptcy to Chapter 7 — a.k.a. liquidation. Groklaw has the text of the filing: "...not only is there no reasonable chance of 'rehabilitation' in these cases, the Debtors have tried — and failed — to liquidate their business in chapter 11."

79 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Ahem. Ahem. by symbolset · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's the fat lady clearing her throat.

    Strangely enough, now I want to hear from Enderle and D'Idiot. I want to hear them whine about the unfainess of it all, how these saints were ridden out of town on a rail when their cause was just. I want to hear them tell the tale of the briefcase with millions of lines of copied code was pilfered from SCO's case in the thick of night.

    And then I want them to vanish into ignominy.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  2. Re:Ahem. Ahem. by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yep. It'll be fascinating to see how O'Gara twists this into an SCO victory, and helps further their appeal.

    --
    If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
  3. Liquify what? by LoRdTAW · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously. What assets do they have left that are worth selling? Patents? Software? I am sure there are still SCO shops around so there might be some interest in Unix Ware, Open Server etc. But how profitable will it be after everyone jumps the SCO ship to other platforms that aren't in danger of becoming unsupported?

    All in all, good riddance.

    1. Re:Liquify what? by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Liquify what?

      Their lawyers? Chief Officers? A company might be able to make some soylent green and make a profit.

    2. Re:Liquify what? by nairnr · · Score: 5, Informative
      Everything! Furniture, chairs, computers, bookcases. You name it, it goes. This is not so anyone can reorganize it into anything meaningful, this is so creditors get every last stinking dime out of them.

      If you have ever been to a liquidation of a store, after they sell you what is left on the racks, they sell you the racks,display cases, lights, left over toilet paper...

    3. Re:Liquify what? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Don't be so mean: SCO has an iPhone App! and an e-postcard service! That would have been worth, like, a billion dollars in VC play money back before the bubble burst...

    4. Re:Liquify what? by Devout_IPUite · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sell the patents to another patent troll company. Duh.

    5. Re:Liquify what? by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seriously. What assets do they have left that are worth selling? Patents? Software?

      The way this works is that the Bankruptcy Trustee brings in an auction house. Assets like intellectual property and lawsuits are usually handled directly by the Trustee. The auction house handles the physical assets.

      There's a whole food chain in Silicon Valley for disposing of defunct companies. Action Computer buys up many of the old PCs, the ones that work. Weird Stuff Warehouse buys up old networking gear and miscellaneous electronics. Consolidated Office Distributors buys much of the furniture (Their warehouse in San Jose looks like the one from Raiders of the Lost Ark, only bigger. That's where many of the Aeron chairs from the dot-com boom ended up.) There's a place in San Jose that buys steel shelving. Quickly, the office buildings and factories are cleaned out, cleaned up, and put on the market.

    6. Re:Liquify what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      And guess who is going to buy all the chairs...

    7. Re:Liquify what? by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Service contracts and customer lists. There are a stack of fiscal and paperwork handling companies that used OpenServer for relatively inexpensive x86 based servers, for years, and wrote very important in-house toolkits on which their companies are founded. I had a long chat with a corporate partner 3 years ago about exactly this, because SCO hardware compatibility seriously lagged anything that wasn't in bankruptcy. They chose to stay with their existing software environment rather than do a complete database migration in a ruch, and have been engaged in a very careful and cautious code cleanup, to get their toolchain under source control and virtualization, so that they can retain access to old data and old environments, while they build a new environment. With that careful toolchain migration and cleanup, they're _much_ better off than they would have been migrating in one giant leap 3 years ago, and are ready to select their next major OS, whether that be OpenServer or Solaris or any other OS that's obviously about to go out of business.

      OK, I'm kidding, but they remain unconvinced that any Linux OS is stable enough. And they've got a point with Linux's eagerness to embrace new toolkits and utilities. For companies with 30 year mortgages, database stability rules over database performance and new features.

      There is apparently some actual compoetent open source work for SCO systems, over at http://aplawrence.com/cgi-bin/indexget.pl?OSR5. This site was an important resource for their cleanup work, especially the notes on VMware and on getting open source tools like gcc and SSH and HTTPD to work properly. Mr. Lawrence is real open source and freeware champion doing very difficult work and deserves all the paying work and support we can send his way. (I had a harsh argument with my corporate partner friend, saying that he should be cutting Mr. Lawrence a _big_ check.)

    8. Re:Liquify what? by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS, YOU HEARD CORRECTLY! Everything! Furniture, chairs, computers, bookcases. You name it, it goes! We've got office supplies, filing cabinets, computers! Heck, we'll even sell you the carpet if you want it! Come on down THIS WEEKEND to the SCO Liquidation Sale, at our liquidation warehouse right off the I-75 Encino Road Exit. Free financing available! Free cotton candy for the kids available!

      C O M E O N D O W N !!!!!

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  4. Re:Ahem. Ahem. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Strangely enough, now I want to hear from Enderle and D'Idiot. I want to hear them whine about the unfainess of it all, how these Latter Day Saints were ridden out of town on a rail when their cause was just. I want to hear them tell the tale of the briefcase with millions of lines of copied code was pilfered from SCO's case in the thick of night."

    They'll probably have to drive a stake through the corporate charter to make SCO stay dead.

  5. Where's Darl now? by ZosX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't worry. The SCO execs still made their money and are most likely very comfortable. Shame they never got investigated for insider trading when they started dumping their own stock, while filing waves of lawsuits, or is that legal? IP was the last leg their company had to stand on, and that was a shaky one at best. It is kind of sad that it took them this long to finally burn through all their cash on lawyers. Couldn't they have just called it a day and given the money to charity or something or maybe tried to reinvest in a new venture? Clearly they didn't see any sort of long term future for SCO. Does any still even actively license their craptacular "Unix" from them?

    1. Re:Where's Darl now? by lgftsa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is kind of sad that it took them this long to finally burn through all their cash on lawyers.

      That would be Novell's money you smell burning...

    2. Re:Where's Darl now? by rts008 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IP was the last leg their company had to stand on, and that was a shaky one at best.

      That's the inherent nature of 'IP' to start with...we see how it ended here.
      Get a clue. Wake the fsck up. 'IP' applied to anything but Internet Protocol, is just a spurious money grab, based on smoke and mirrors.

      --
      Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
    3. Re:Where's Darl now? by RagingFuryBlack · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ironically, Yes. The Zales corporation...yes, the jewelry company, still uses an SCO system for their in-store terminal system. Maybe this will force them to update their systems to something more advanced than the current Circa 1989 software they're running.

      --
      Warning: Corny karma killing post above.
    4. Re:Where's Darl now? by palegray.net · · Score: 3, Interesting

      While I'm certainly no fan of SCO, in The Real World you use what works. If it still works, there's no need to replace it. Here's the thing about IMS about related systems: they solve what's largely understood to be a "known domain" of problems. You can still use third-party systems to link the central DBs to more modern systems if your business rules change, but the basics of managing inventory and keeping sales records haven't changed since pencil-and-paper ledgers.

      Short version: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It.

    5. Re:Where's Darl now? by evilviper · · Score: 4, Interesting

      To hell with Zales' POS systems. McDonalds is a MAJOR user of SCO Unix, and they just keep growing.

      Maybe they'll buy-up the IP rights for in-house development, or spin-off a small company to maintain it for their own needs and make a bit of money off selling to others at the same time...

      Or maybe their contract works out better if they go out of business, then McD gets the software, with full source code, and unlimited rights, automatically. Who knows?

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    6. Re:Where's Darl now? by evilviper · · Score: 2, Informative

      Does any still even actively license their craptacular "Unix" from them?

      Damn. How lazy can one person possibly be? You didn't even TRY visiting their website to look at their marketing hype, vis-a-vis SCO Unix market share?

      http://sco.com/products/openserver6/
              * SCO UNIX has more than 40% market share among U.S. pharmacy retailers
              * Six of the top 10 global retailers are SCO UNIX customers
              * Seven of the top 10 U.S. retailers are SCO UNIX customers
              * SCO UNIX runs more than 12,000 McDonald's restaurants worldwide
              * Most voice mail systems run on SCO UNIX
              * SCO UNIX helps run BMW Service Centers
              * SCO UNIX runs 22,000 branches for the Bank of Russia
              * SCO UNIX helps the German train system run on time
              * SCO UNIX runs thousands of locations throughout China for the China Post

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    7. Re:Where's Darl now? by dbIII · · Score: 4, Informative

      An important thing to remember is that Darl McBride's brother was one of those lawyers getting truckloads of cash. I still see it as a two man scam where the company was deliberately driven into the brick wall of IBM and then the repair work contracted out to the driver's brother.

    8. Re:Where's Darl now? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In the real world it's also incredibly fun to watch the scramble when some ancient system nobody knows, supports or maintains goes postal, if you're not responsible for fixing it. Maybe it's nothing more than the inventory hitting more than MAX_INT items or whatever, but the day production is down and keeps going down every time you bring it up someone will wish they had a vendor to scream at.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    9. Re:Where's Darl now? by pipoca · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My grandfather's business, a steel yard in West Virginia, uses a Unix server that runs SCO. I've told him about the law suit, but they'll probably continue to run it until it's no longer supported.

      There's probably a number of small businesses like his, that started using SCO back in the day, and never bothered to learn about their comparatively recent legal troubles.

  6. Allow me to say... by whisper_jeff · · Score: 3

    Allow me to say, it's about damn time.

  7. How long has it really been? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One year, four months since I submitted this frontpaged Slashdot article about SCO being delisted from NASDAQ: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/27/1438204

    I must ask again... is the wicked witch finally dead, YET?!

    (Captcha: Circus. How. Very. Appropriate.)

    1. Re:How long has it really been? by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 4, Funny
      The wicked witch may not be dead yet, but she has pneumonia, gangrene, a wicked case of uncontrolled syphilis, and a lazy eye. And H1N1 influenza. And no health insurance or VA benefits. Medicare has its limits. And her good eye is infected from pickin' at it...

      ...but I think she's more like the Annoying Witch really, as she was too inefective and irrelevant to ever really be all that wicked.

      --
      This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
    2. Re:How long has it really been? by shentino · · Score: 2, Informative

      According to Groklaw, the motion has been granted and Judge Gross has ordered the conversion to Chapter 7.

      This is way beyond ding dong the witch is dead.

      This is "hail dorothy, the wicked witch is dead!" level stuff.

      That hissing you hear is the wicked witch melting after Judge Gross dumped a bucket of water on SCO.

    3. Re:How long has it really been? by shentino · · Score: 3, Informative

      My mistake, Gross hasn't signed the second pdf yet.

  8. I wonder... by erroneus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...where would SCO be today if it hadn't started filing lawsuits? Sure, it wouldn't have had that cash infusion from Microsoft, but what was the state of that company and where was it headed prior to the suits? Would SCO still be a respected Unix vendor?

    1. Re:I wonder... by jk379 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As they were a Linux company they might be making $$$'s. Even at 3rd place linux company would be in a much better place than SCO is today...

    2. Re:I wonder... by hardburn · · Score: 2, Interesting

      When were they ever a respected Unix vendor? SCO Unix never stood out from any of the dozen other Unix variants, and Caldera was the same way on the Linux side. All they had was some tenuous rights to the Unix name and code, but original Unix has been carved up so badly that it's impossible to know who really owns what.

      --
      Not a typewriter
    3. Re:I wonder... by countach · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sure they were a respected UNIX vendor. They were the only serious choice at one time for Intel, and then they "owned" (sort of) the original UNIX rights. Doesn't mean they were the best or most wonderful or impressive vendor, but they were a serious vendor.

    4. Re:I wonder... by PCM2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...and it had customers. Even if SCO's products and services were worthless, its customer base alone would still have been valuable enough for some other Unix vendor (say, HP) to buy it out.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    5. Re:I wonder... by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ubuntu does not break even. Canonical is still burning through Shuttleworth's money, although it's starting to fight its way against its downward spiral and could become profitable in the future. It still has plenty of assets though.

    6. Re:I wonder... by rackserverdeals · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When were they ever a respected Unix vendor?

      SCO had the lead in Unix on x86 hardware and apparently were used widely in certain sectors.

      Unline, IBM, HP and Sun, SCO didn't have their own processor architecture so they weren't resistant to having their OS run on commodity hardware like the other big Unix vendors did.

      This whole SCO lawsuit thing confuses me. At least the reaction to it and SCO going after Linux users.

      SCO was under the Canopy Group and every time Ray Noorda spun a company out of Novell, it usually resulted in an IP lawsuit. Usually against Microsoft. Strange or ironic that SCO and Novell would go head to head this time.

      I can understand why SCO sued IBM. IBM, SCO and Sequent got together to work on Project Monterey. SCO's role in that was providing their leading Unix on x86 work. Then the project fell apart, IBM bought Sequent and SCO got nothing for their efforts.

      Then all of a sudden, IBM puts more effort into Linux, an alternate Unix like OS that can run on x86.

      If you were SCO, had spent a lot of time with IBM showing them your Unix/x86 secrets, then they ditch your work and all of a sudden put a big push into a competing unix like os on x86 that could benefit from the knowledge you shared with IBM, you'd probably want to sue too. I would.

      Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but you'd have to go to trial to get to the bottom of it.

      Somehow it all turned into a giant circus and SCO seemed to start it by going after licensing fees for Linux users, but people on the sidelines, in either camp really made a mess of things. I think it's probably one of the most ridiculous moments in technology history.

      --
      Dual Opteron < $600
    7. Re:I wonder... by failedlogic · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the opposite, I wonder what would have happened if they actually *won* the suit. I'm not sure if anything of this nature was ever discussed. The business was failing anyways - so they would have had to significantly improve or diversify their product and/or go after new markets.

      They were claiming damages in the 100's of millions of dollars. Would they have invested their riches in new developers, sales, marketing folks? I don't know that even with the riches in hand they would buy out the Linux/Unix talent of another company (Sun, RH, etc) and even if they did and also operated on the basis of collecting royalties from other 'Nix vendors, what would have happened. My general impression is it would be a shell company. Does nothing but deepens the pockets of those that 'own' the IP. Its a shame that the developers who actually went through long days etc programming wouldn't have gotten a cent. The suits that just kind of 'show up' could be sitting on a beach (assuming, again they won) in the middle of nowhere and collecting millions - and they really were never responsible for the IP.

      I'm somewhat pro 'IP'. But in this context, I think as long as an IP or patent (or whatever) stays in a shell company that does absolutely nothing but to exist to get money from its IP etc, then the people who created/developed the IP - scientists, engineers, should be the first in line to profit.

    8. Re:I wonder... by Techman83 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually Canonical Close To $30M Critical Mass; Should Microsoft Worry? If anything, I'd say the spiral is going up, not down.

      --
      # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i cat
      Damn, my RAM is full of cats. MEOW!!
    9. Re:I wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      For RedHat, profit to revenue is about 14% compared to Oracle which is 25% and Microsoft at 29%

      It seems to be difficult for people to understand Red Hat's business model, they are not a software company like Oracle or Microsoft. Oracle and Microsoft provide both software licensing and service, Red Hat provides service. The profit margins on software licensing are insanely high for any mass deployed application as the reproduction cost is virtually zero. Red Hat does not license software so they do not benefit from the fake limited supply created by closed source licensing. Comparing the margins is, well, dumb.

      2 of the 3 top linux distros are either not making or just making a profit

      14% is far from barely making a profit, Novell's profits were crap long before the SuSE purchase as Netware is a dead end. Good luck in extracting linux specific details from Novell's SEC filings, the last time I checked they buried the results in their dead end Netware product. As you already noted Ubuntu is private so their margins are unknown.

      As far as Caldera, a.k.a. The SCO Group, goes they were seeing the beginnings of the same double digit revenue growth that Red Hat experienced prior to the suicide attacks. The purchase of the SCO Unix business brought on a large existing market to Caldera but just like Netware a dead end product line. It seems there was an opportunity to take advantage of that market to further sell Caldera linux and compete with Red Hat but instead they went for the get rich quick lottery ticket with a suicide lawsuit against IBM.

    10. Re:I wonder... by countach · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't see why you need to go to trial to get to the bottom of it. Linux development is out in the open and the code is out in the open. If there was anything to it, they could have shown us the code on day one.

    11. Re:I wonder... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 2, Informative
      Sure they were a respected UNIX vendor. They were the only serious choice at one time for Intel,

      No they were not. This is a completely different company who bought the name. You are talking about the Santa Cruz Operation. Their "Unix" was not very good, but it was not likely to be until the invention of the 386, cos the 286 MMU was not up to the job. (Both MMUs were reworks of earlier DEC ones, so experienced Unix users knew what the issues were.)

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    12. Re:I wonder... by Lorien_the_first_one · · Score: 4, Informative

      Your points are well taken. But discovery, months of discovery, showed that there was no stolen code. There were also some other trigger events that eventually released IBM from the partnership (I can't remember all the details, but they include change of ownership, expiration dates, etc.). In the end, there was really no evidence of wrong-doing on the part of IBM. In fact, well before the lawsuits, IBM made many statements of its intentions and followed through with no objection from SCO.

      This is all very well documented at www.groklaw.net and available for your reading.

      --
      The diversity and expression of human opinion is essential to human survival.
    13. Re:I wonder... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2, Informative

      I can understand why SCO sued IBM. IBM, SCO and Sequent got together to work on Project Monterey. SCO's role in that was providing their leading Unix on x86 work. Then the project fell apart, IBM bought Sequent and SCO got nothing for their efforts.

      First of all, Project Monterrey fell apart not because of anything that IBM, Sequent, or SCO did. Project Monterrey fell apart because it relied on the presumption that Intel Itanium would become the defacto and prevalent server CPU. Intel was late and that never happened.

      Second, IBM shared with SCO their work, too. While IBM eventually was able to use some of the work from the project. SCO was never able to find a use. That is not IBM's fault that SCO could not because nothing was stopping them.

      Then all of a sudden, IBM puts more effort into Linux, an alternate Unix like OS that can run on x86.

      IBM was able to see Linux was the server OS that was going to be the next big thing. SCO did not. Again, that's not IBM's fault that IBM's crystal ball was better.

      If you were SCO, had spent a lot of time with IBM showing them your Unix/x86 secrets, then they ditch your work and all of a sudden put a big push into a competing unix like os on x86 that could benefit from the knowledge you shared with IBM, you'd probably want to sue too. I would.

      That's a biased and unsubstantiated view of what happened. SCO, Sequent, and IBM got together figuring a single Unix spec on Itanium would make them all money. Unfortunately no other vendors got on board so no drivers were supported. However, at the same time, a free OS named Linux was gaining traction. IBM seeing the writing on the wall and having lost a lot of money in the project, decided to kill it. They all shared technology which each of them could use. IBM found a use for some of their technology in their own projects. However none of the technology went directly to Linux, SCO just thought it did. Also it turns out SCO was laying claim to all of Unix which they did not have rights.

      Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but you'd have to go to trial to get to the bottom of it.

      No you don't. Most of the time when there are questions about copyrights, patents, etc, both sides get together first and see if there is a case. Most of the time the dispute is resolved without a lawsuit because lawsuits are expensive. In this case, not only did SCO refuse to meet with IBM, they have refused to show IBM without being ordered why they even sued IBM. In the end, they had nothing. But an internal audit in 2001, SCO hired an outside consultant that told them there was no SCO code in Linux.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  9. I dont understand by onyxruby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't understand, their reality distortion field has got to be worth millions in it's own right. Nice thing about chapter 7 is they have to auction /everything/. I wonder if you can buy their data and load up their servers to see what they were really thinking. Perhaps someone can buy whatever rights they thought they had and donate everything to the FSF.

  10. Re:Taking bets by hedwards · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's too big to fail, but SCO's too fail to bail.

    Totally different.

  11. Re:fp! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Short and to the point, slightly misogynistic and/or homo-erotic. 7/10.

  12. Don't forget... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...to pay your $699 licensing fee you cock smoking teabaggers!

    1. Re:Don't forget... by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 2, Funny

      Now now, be nice. NO NEED to bring Glen Beck into this.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    2. Re:Don't forget... by Sfing_ter · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sir, i respectfully correct you, that would be "cock-smoking t-bagees" as they are the ones to be t-bagged, the ones RECEIVING the t-bag. And to add to your epithet, "you're bunch of BIG FUCKING PUSSIES".

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
  13. Sell to the 'glue factory' is the only option... by rts008 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously. What assets do they have left that are worth selling? Patents? Software?

    Well, sometimes you have to consider that the 'best' return on your investment is to 'render that horse' into dog food and glue. SCO has seemingly passed up both of those viable options in the hope of a MS type miracle, and failed.

    Haul that dead horse to the rendering plant, and finally put it out of 'all of our miseries'!

    --
    Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
  14. Constructive Trust by shentino · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hey, didn't judge kimball have novell's money set aside in a constructive trust?

    I hope someone at SCO gets nailed for contempt.

    Novell has probably got to be mega POed right now.

    1. Re:Constructive Trust by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, he didn't. He found he could rule on summary judgement that SCO owed money, but exactly how much involved questions of fact that he had to defer to the trial. Since he couldn't pin down an amount, he couldn't order a constructive trust until after the trial. And of course SCO filed for bankruptcy the day before the trial was to start. Later the bankruptcy judge unstayed the case as far as determining the amount SCO owed went, and Judge Kimball finally ruled on the matter last August.

      Novell did ask during the bankruptcy proceedings to have the money put into a trust, and SCO's attorneys argued that wasn't neccesary. I expect that'll come back to haunt SCO during the Ch.7 proceedings.

      At this point, though, the big monster in the room isn't Novell, it's IBM. Novell may be PO'd, but IBM... is Darth Vader back before George turned him into a whiny emo kid.

  15. Today's top story by Anenome · · Score: 4, Funny

    Today's top story: In a bid to stave off bankruptcy, SCO Inc. has decided to sue everyone. That's right, everyone. SCO spokesman Seth Tuller says that 'everyone' will be served with court papers during lunch-time tomorrow. Tuller is quoting as saying, "Everyone owes us money, and everyone must pay." Stockholders are up in arms over this last minute bid to serve the entire world with a reverse class-action lawsuit, saying that the estimated $100 billion cost of doing so is just the latest in a long line of terrible decisions by company management.

    In other news, the dancing penguin video has become the latest sensation to hit the web...

    --
    "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist"
  16. Save Their Publications by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Let's not forget to archive the materials they have published (mostly as Caldera). There is some useful information there.

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  17. Same place, most likely by Weaselmancer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder...where would SCO be today if it hadn't started filing lawsuits?

    Same place, chapter 7.

    They knew they were tanking and that's why they did this hail mary "let's sue IBM" nonsense. Their UN*X product was not spectacular. They didn't really offer anything unique or give any compelling reasons to do any business with them.

    People do this sort of thing all the time. There is something nearly universal in the human psyche that says that it makes sense to spend your last five bucks to buy a lottery ticket.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  18. Re:I call dibs by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'd bid on sco.com,for sure!!! I'd pay like $3 to use it for my future site devoted to South Carolina otters. That is, if I can get a loan, since funding has been hard to secure for this project, for some reason. Maybe I'll try to figure out who invested in SCO in recent years and hit them up.

    --
    This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
  19. Just like I knew Nortel was in trouble ... by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... when they started suing everybody who did anything SONET (including our company) over potential infringements of their patents. (I got dragged in because a chip I had co-architected included a SONET-like framer and some other telecom carrier framer stuff.)

    When the company is sinking and the management is grabbing any floating debris that might keep their heads above water, the patent portfolio that USED to be just for protection against suits from others suddenly becomes a potential cash cow. (Or an inflatable life raft to continue the previous metaphor.) And a technology company starts taking on the appearance of a patent troll operation.

    Of course in SCO's case it looks like the patent trolls bought into the sinking company so they could use it for trolling...

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  20. Re:I shall point at them and say by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This isn't personal. Anyway, the lawyers and journalists spewing SCO propoganda got paid their millions and aren't harmed at all by liquidation. Unless you're a millionaire you hardly have grounds to HA HA.

  21. One more thing... by Timbotronic · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think a sharpened wooden stake is called for at this point.

    --

    One of these days I'm moving to Theory - everything works there

  22. Re:I call dibs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    fuck that, make it a goatse mirror! ;)

  23. Won't work, soylet green is people, not rats by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would you eat lawyers and CEO's?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  24. Re:Ahem. Ahem. by russ1337 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    the funny thing is..... SCO is like a zombie. Just when you think it's dead, a hand reaches from under the bed and grabs your leg.

    It'll take a shotgun to the face to get rid of SCO. (a.k.a buy the trademark and all SCO's IP and release it all under creative commons / GPL / public domain....)

  25. Hi Darl by theolein · · Score: 2, Funny

    If PJ is a sponge, what does that make you? And if she was on a gravy train, does that mean you were in a racket?

  26. Groklaw didn't say the motion was granted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Where do you get that? The hearing didn't even happen yet.

  27. I miss the old SCO by LostMyBeaver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There was a point in time when there was an SCO (probably prior to 7 buy outs and name transfers) that actually focused on technology. I remember when their product, in my opinion was the best UNIX desktop if for no other reason, but they had a control panel while everyone else still used configuration files. It was a dream being able to change screen resolution without having to restart X.

    They also made some products in their Tarentella line which was a port of the Microsoft SMB stack and therefore was a MUCH MUCH better solution than the Samba of the time. In fact, management-wise, it might still be better. After all, when you can spend less time reverse engineering and hacking with compatibility problems you can spend more time on usability.

    I guess that company is long gone and what's going bankrupt now is just some predators who attempted to capitalize off the accomplishments of the old SCO.

    But Goodbye SCO. I miss you

    1. Re:I miss the old SCO by troll8901 · · Score: 2, Informative

      There was a point in time when there was an SCO ... that actually focused on technology. ... They also made some products in their Tarentella line which was a port of the Microsoft SMB stack ...

      I'm pretty sure I misunderstood you, and you knew more than me. But in case there's any confusion:

      • The "old SCO" that produced the Tarentella was renamed to Tarantella, Inc. in 2001, and was bought by Sun Microsystems in 2005.
      • The present "SCO Group" was formerly Caldera, renamed to The SCO Group in 2002.

      I think you're quite right - Caldera simply wanted to use the good "SCO" name for their greedy purposes.

      Credits to schon (31600) for writing an easy-to-understand message.

  28. Re:Ahem. Ahem. by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    But be honest, you KNOW this hand comes, don't you? I mean, how many zombie movies have you seen? You're actually pissed when it doesn't come. It's like sex without an orgasm when you're sitting there, the hero has his love interest in his arms and that fuckin' zombie stays just DEAD. "C'mon! Move!", you scream at the screen, "how can you let him get away with this without a last, feeble attempt to claw at him!"

    I'd feel cheated if zombie Darl didn't at least try to move and lift four fingers to make that chapter 7 an 11 again.

    I feel there's a 7-Eleven joke in there somewhere, if someone finds it, please inform me. Thanks.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  29. Where's the SEC? by Eternal+Annoyance · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder when they will come banging on the door of senior SCO managers who performed insider trading. Also, it wouldn't amaze me if they follow the cash donation (that $500.000.000 they got from Microsoft) back to the source and start asking some very nasty questions over there.

    SEC's arguments: competition fraud, misleading shareholders, inciting forgery of papers, inciting abuse of the judicial system.

    When will that RICO act be invoked against Microsoft by the SEC?

  30. Off doing bigger stuff by Kupfernigk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While we've been worrying about a small company trying to make money by patent trolling large ones, the Masters of the Universe held whole governments to ransom. Bernie Madoff's petty cash fund is probably bigger than the entire SCO case.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  31. Re:SCO OWNS LINUX!!! by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, Linux pwned SCO.

    And not even in Soviet Russia.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  32. He asked "actively license" by Moraelin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sorry, but the question was if anyone still actively goes and buys a license.

    E.g., given the state of IP in Russia or China, I can't possibly imagine that the Bank Of Russia (or for that matter the China Post) actually bought full price licenses for those 22,000 branches. Most likely they had copied it lots, and if they even have a license in the meantime, they probably got some _massively_ discounted blanket license as most companies sell for Russia, China, etc. That or it was some scam in which it was imported through the CEO's brother's ghost company and it was just a way to siphon some money into their private pockets.

    E.g., those BMW service centres or the Deutsche Bahn, I don't imagine they still pay anything for that SCO Unix or designing new systems around it. Most likely they still have some legacy stuff from the 80's or early 90's, and it stays there just because nobody can be arsed to replace it with something newer. Or maybe it's the same I'll get to for McDonald.

    Running McDonald restaurants? Now that really gets me thinking. It's not like a McDonald restaurant has its own computing centre at all. If they're that big on SCO Unix, why only in restaurants? And why not in all restaurants? Does McDonald have anything against a homogenous and easy to administrate network?

    What this last one gets me to suspect is that it's really more along the lines of "whatever embedded OS came with those cashier machines." Roll that around in your head a bit.

    What that really tells me is that McDonald doesn't actually give a flying fuck about SCO Unix as such. They just have a bunch of cashier machines which incidentally came with SCO on them. But they wouldn't give a rat's arse about whether it's SCO or Linux or some embedded version of Windows or some refurbished thing based on OS/2, as long as it still talks the same protocols to the rest of their network.

    And they probably won't shed one tear for SCO. Whoever manufactures those terminals will just switch to something else and McDonald won't even notice, nor care.

    And it makes me wonder how many others on that list are essentially the same misleading claim. E.g., pharmacies? I don't imagine many either (A) actually implementing any meaningful computer centre in the back, or (B) actually choosing SCO for that. Most likely, again, it was whatever embedded crap came with their cashier machines. They'll keep them happily untilt they stop working at all, then replace them with some other machine that talks to the same protocol, and probably don't even know they run SCO at all.

    Same for probably a lot of other retailers, since SCO seems to hype that.

    I'm sorry, but that doesn't equal "actively licensing their craptacular Unix." In reality the only ones who actually actively licensed SCO there were the one or maybe two manufacturers of those cashier machines, and even those probably just because they got some old 16 bit version for peanuts.

    And I'd be surprised if any of those would _still_ go and license SCO for a new machine, since the word "still" was in the GP's question too. Most likely it's something they licensed a decade or two ago, and never thought about it ever since.

    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
  33. Re:I call dibs by capnkr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Begging your pardon, but - I'm from South Carolina, you insensitive clod!

    What makes you think we want even the remotest association with SCOm? Our river otters are fine, pure and noble beasts, not scum-sucking bottom feeders, as they would be inferred to be by the use of that domain in such a manner.

    Perhaps your efforts would be better spent studying the relationship between Sporocarp and Chipmunks in Oregon.

    Good day to you, sir!

    --
    "...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
  34. Re:I personally look forward to by salesgeek · · Score: 2, Funny

    I suggest killing it with fire first.

    --
    -- $G
  35. Re:Circuit City by petermgreen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, raise the price of everything to 20-40% over market value, so it can be offered at a 10-20% discount off the "original price".
    The job of the liquidators is to get as much as possible as quickly as possible for the stock being liquidated. Not to build a good reputation with customers.

    So if such slimy tactics are legal in your region IMO it would be negligent of the liquidators not to use them.

    --
    note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  36. Re:Circuit City by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 2, Informative

    Circuit City was mostly an excuse to sell resources at normal prices to suckers. I looked: those "closing" prices were the same as other commercial retailers, with perhaps a 5% discount, at least in my neighborhood.

  37. You're wrong. by schon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    SCO had the lead in Unix on x86 hardware and apparently were used widely in certain sectors.

    No, they most certainly did not.

    Santa Cruz Operation had the lead in Unix on x86 hardware.

    "The SCO Group", which is the company we're talking about, was a failed Linux vendor who called itself "SCO" after they decided to file baseless lawsuits.

  38. In the meantime... by mortonda · · Score: 2, Funny

    While she's clearing her throat, those of us in the audience are singing...

    Sing with me now...

    Na na na na. Na na na na. Hey hey hey! Goodbye!

  39. Re:I didn't know they could force a chapter switch by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 2, Informative

    You said the magic word: reorganization. The reason the US Trustee gave for asking for conversion to Chapter 7 or dismissal was that SCO wasn't making any progress towards reorganizing, they had no reasonable prospects for ever being able to reorganize and turn themselves into a going concern again, and all they were doing was wasting what money they had left to pay creditors with. Chapter 11 isn't intended to be a permanent shield against creditors, and the Trustee is saying SCO isn't supposed to use it as such.

  40. Re:Ahem. Ahem. by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This saga has been dragged out so long, I won't be sorry to hear the last of SCO.

    The sad thing is that once upon a time, they provided a Unix variant (Xenix), which (for all of its earlier association with Microsoft) in the days when other x86 *nix options were non-existent, was actually useful for those of us who had the thankless task of getting distributed computing systems running on what was essentially consumer hardware.

    The trouble is, I'm not sure the metamorphoses into UnixWare and SCO UNIX represented any real change in the codebase (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about this), and if they had seen fit to put more resources into actual development, SCO might have retained an active market share even in the face of Linux.

    Instead, they pissed their product against the wall, leaving the courts to argue over the stains.

  41. Re:Ahem. Ahem. by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Informative

    The sad thing is that once upon a time, they provided a Unix variant (Xenix),

    No, they didn't. That was the Santa Cruz Operation, or SCO, of Santa Cruz California, which did that. They are now named "Tarantella", and are still in business as far as I know.

    The company in this article is "The SCO Group", of Linden, Utah, formerly named "Caldera" (of Linux fame).

    Caldera bought some assets from old-SCO, renamed themselves "The SCO Group", and that's who they are now. They have never been the same company as the one that made Xenix, or had any of the same people.

  42. Re:Ahem. Ahem. Yourself by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the controversy about the cover up of pedophile Roman Catholic priests by the hierarchy does not mean that the Pope nor the Catholicy laity support child abuse,

    I disagree. While it doesn't really reflect on the laity, the coverup absolutely shows that the Catholic Church leadership supports child abuse.

    Seriously, if you were the CEO of a company, and you found out that some of your employees were abusing children, would you cover it up, or would you turn them in to the authorities? Just because the Catholic Church is a religious institution doesn't make that any different. The Church hierarchy should be facing criminal charges for covering that stuff up. The only question here is how much the Pope (or previous Pope) knew, and exactly which bishops/cardinals/etc. were responsible or had direct knowledge.