I see all that talk about lawsuits as just more noise. I doubt whether this is what SCO really wants - we need to keep an eye on the magician's other hand instead.
Yes: they get to jiggle the share price up and down at their whim, make quite a lot of money for a short while, but the whole thing will collapse in the end. Short-term stuff.
Let's not take our eyes off the ball; Yes: the GPL needs to be defended - that's probably the easy part.
The really dangerous effect is the FUD: Repeat it often enough, and lots of people will believe it - after all most people have no idea of what we mean when we say free - remember that there are people out there who actually believe that turning the ignition key makes the wheels run (think: direct connection).
This whole thing is the natural progression of the scenarious that were laid out in the Haloween Documents. Eric Raymond is bound to have predicted that somewhere. Yes: I'm sure that M$ is pulling the strings somewhere in the darkness.
Which basically leads us back to: How do we fight FUD?. (yes: the truth will come out sooner or later, but I'd rather have it sooner). Will the old defence actually work this time? Ideas are welcome...
The FUD this generates mainly benefits one company - (!MegaHard).
PS: By FUD here I mean the notion of Open Source software being of dubious origin, dangerous to use etc.
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I see all that talk about lawsuits as just more noise. I doubt whether this is what SCO really wants - we need to keep an eye on the magician's other hand instead.
Yes: they get to jiggle the share price up and down at their whim, make quite a lot of money for a short while, but the whole thing will collapse in the end. Short-term stuff.
Let's not take our eyes off the ball; Yes: the GPL needs to be defended - that's probably the easy part.
The really dangerous effect is the FUD: Repeat it often enough, and lots of people will believe it - after all most people have no idea of what we mean when we say free - remember that there are people out there who actually believe that turning the ignition key makes the wheels run (think: direct connection).
This whole thing is the natural progression of the scenarious that were laid out in the Haloween Documents. Eric Raymond is bound to have predicted that somewhere. Yes: I'm sure that M$ is pulling the strings somewhere in the darkness.
Which basically leads us back to: How do we fight FUD?. (yes: the truth will come out sooner or later, but I'd rather have it sooner). Will the old defence actually work this time? Ideas are welcome...
The FUD this generates mainly benefits one company - (!MegaHard).
PS: By FUD here I mean the notion of Open Source software being of dubious origin, dangerous to use etc.