[NTLUG:Discuss] SCO sues IBM over UNIX IP in Linux

[Steve Baker]

Chris Cox wrote:
> I had to respond since publically SCO has now sicked their
> spin wizards on trying to dig them out of a pit by stating
> vehemently that the lawsuit IS NOT ABOUT LINUX.

Oh?  Then it's off-topic and we can't discuss it here  :-)

> It's based on the assumption (a weak one) that Linux developers
> would not be able to put together the resources necessary to
> actually obtiain high-end computing equipment to test against
> without help from large corporations... of course, SCO would
> like for you to believe that it is primarily ONE corporation,
> IBM...

I was looking here:

     http://www.vipul.net/codd/suse5.2.R.html

...which purports to break down the amount of code contributed to
the (SuSE) Linux source base by some 3,400 people.

Looking for 'ibm' in that list, the IBM corporation appear to have
contributed 0.001% of the code.  Individuals with IBM email addresses
(who may or may not have been being paid by IBM at the time) contributed
a total of 0.032% of the code.

The code considered in that study was 514Mbytes of source.  IBM's contribution
is 5,714 bytes.   That's *nothing*.  Linus has contributed 1.4Mbytes of
source code.

So it's hard to claim that without IBM's help, there would be no Linux!
There would still be 99.9868% of Linux!  It's not much of a stretch to
imagine that we could have filled that gap without their help!

> 83.         As long as the Linux development process remained
>             uncoordinated and random, it posed little or no threat to
>             SCO, or to other UNIX vendors, for at least two major
>             reasons: (a) Linux quality was inadequate since it was not
>             developed and tested in coordination for enterprise use and
>             (b) enterprise customer acceptance was non-existent because
>             Linux was viewed by enterprise customers as a “fringe”
>             software product.

So without IBM, we'd all be in a terrible mess?!?  But Linux was
pretty much as finished as it is now long before IBM started backing us!

The biggest corporate contributions came from Sun Microsystems (3rd
biggest contributor after "unknown" and FSF - having contributed 7.4%
of the code), followed by University of California, the X consortium,
Washington University, DEC and SGI.

All of those are in the top 10.  IBM ranks 2,438th in the list!

Surely at least Sun, DEC and SGI have had just as much access to
the UNIX sources as IBM - with their much larger code contribution,
shouldn't they be the first targets?

> Also we learn that free software developers are incapable of
> producing good quality software.

Well, SCO were selling it - now even I have my doubts!

> 84.         Prior to IBM’s involvement, Linux was the software
>             equivalent of a bicycle.  UNIX was the software equivalent
>             of a luxury car.

How long ago did IBM get involved?  I didn't think it was all that long
ago.

> I'm sure the SGI boys will be the next people that SCO will sue on this
> (of course they'll be attacking SGI and not the bicycle known as Linux).

I'm not sure.  Did you read Bruce Perens' piece on /. today?

He makes a pretty convincing case that SCO are hoping that either
IBM will buy them out in order to avoid a messy lawsuit - or that
Microsoft will buy them out in order to support a messy lawsuit.

I don't think today's SGI would be buying SCO.

> Whew!!

This is all pretty hard to swallow.  They've been shipping Linux (and using
it's source code) all this time - and only now have they realised all
this stuff?

And a BILLION DOLLARS!!  How the heck can they justify that?

The trouble is that SCO are *dead* the only thing they have left
are a big pile of expired UNIX patents which are useless for beating
Linux down with because SCO distributed GPL'ed Linux code and that
means that they aren't allowed to use their patents in this way.

The other thing they have is a big pile of dusty old NDA's.

Since they are going bust anyway - they may as well make one last
effort to extract some revenue from that before they go down.  All
of these boycotts people are talking about are pointless - SCO is
going down anyway because people weren't buying their stuff anyway.

They simply have nothing to lose.
---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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