Publicado en GNU/Linux, IBM, Microsoft, SCO, UNIX at 12:26 pm por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

See Lawrence R. Goldfarb (Wikipedia)

Sumario: el caso SCO no ha acabado todavía, y permanece no claro quié esta subsidiando el caso

El caso SCO “se levanta de la tumba de nuevo,” dice hoy el titular de los medios Británicos (que lanzaron la historia). Esta historia que podría ser del 2009, 2010 y todo hasta el 2016. Nunca acaba. ¿De dónde viene el financiamiénto?

“Bueno, SCO levanta de la tumba o tal vez la información no era exacta. Se nos ha dicho esto durante 7 años y hasta hace 2 meses nosotros dudamos que esto fue el final de todo.”Bueno, SCO levanta de la tumba o tal vez la información no era exacta. Se nos ha dicho esto durante 7 años y hasta hace 2 meses nosotros dudamos que esto fue el final de todo. La razón que relmente no creímos que es el final de toda esa litigación es todo ese modelo de Groklaw (o medios citando Groklaw) de decir que estaba lejos de terminar. Groklaw todavía esta publicando PDFs que se relacionan a este caso y medios Británicos los citan (sabiéndo magicamente donde estos documentos están). Para citar a The Inquirer: “En un comunicado, el juez David Nuffer argumentó que “la naturaleza de las reclamaciones son tales que ninguna corte de apelación tendría que decidir los mismos problemas más de una vez si había alguna posteriores recursos”, efectívamente sugiriéndo que el caso tiene para rato.

“El 1 de marzo, que la presentación fue respaldada por una explicación completa del juez, declarando vencedor IBM enfático en la larga saga.”

“Se ordena y se adjudicó que de acuerdo con las órdenes del tribunal presentó el 10 de julio, 2013 5 de febrero de 2016, y 8 de febrero, 2016, se dictó sentencia a favor del acusado y las causas de los demandantes de acción son despedidos con prejuicio” se indica en el documento.”

“Para implementar exitósamente E.E.E. algo que debes dar es la impresión de buenas intenciones.”“Ahora, sin embargo, SCO se ha presentado una vez más para apelar la sentencia aunque, con precisión los motivos que aún reclaman no se han dado a conocer.”

También afirma que “no es claro quién continúa financiando el caso.” Bueno, talvez pregunten eso a Microsoft. Insiste que todavía “ama a Linux” mientras al mismo tiempo saca un E.E.E. sobre el (incluso hace unas horas). Para implementar exitósamente E.E.E. algo que debes dar es la impresión de buenas intenciones. █

“…Microsoft quiso promover a SCO y su juicio pendiente contra IBM y el sistema operativo Linux. Pero Microsoft no quiso ser visto como atacando IBM o Linux.”

–Larry Goldfarb, BayStar, accionista clave en SCO abordado por Microsoft

Summary: SCO case not over yet, and it remains unclear who’s still subsidising the case

The SCO case “rises from the grave again,” says today’s headline from the British media (which broke the story). This story looks like it could be from 2009, 2010 and all the way to 2016. It just never ends. Where does the funding even come from?

“Well, SCO rises from the grave or maybe the reporting was just not accurate. We have been told this for 7 years and even 2 months ago we doubted this was the end of it all.”Well, SCO rises from the grave or maybe the reporting was just not accurate. We have been told this for 7 years and even 2 months ago we doubted this was the end of it all. The reason we didn't really believe it's the end of all that litigation is Groklaw’s pattern (or media quoting Groklaw) of stating it’s all pretty much over. Groklaw is still uploading PDFs which relate to this case and British media cites them (magically knowing where files are located). To quote The Inquirer: “In a filing, Judge David Nuffer argued that “the nature of the claims are such that no appellate court would have to decide the same issues more than once if there were any subsequent appeals”, effectively suggesting that the case had more than run its course.

“On 1 March, that filing was backed up by the judge’s full explanation, declaring IBM the emphatic victor in the long-running saga.

“”IT IS ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that pursuant to the orders of the court entered on July 10, 2013, February 5, 2016, and February 8, 2016, judgment is entered in favour of the defendant and plaintiff’s causes of action are dismissed with prejudice,” stated the document.

“To successfully E.E.E. something you must give the impression of good intentions.”“Now, though, SCO has filed yet again to appeal that judgment, although the precise grounds it is claiming haven’t yet been disclosed.”

It also states that “it’s unclear who continues to bankroll the case.” Well, maybe ask Microsoft. It insists that it “loves Linux” while pulling an E.E.E. on it (even just a few hours ago). To successfully E.E.E. something you must give the impression of good intentions. █

“…Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux.”

–Larry Goldfarb, BayStar, key investor in SCO approached by Microsoft

Summary: FreeBSD believes that the NSA tampered with hardware-level random number generators

LINUX may have been made vulnerable by the NSA et al. [1, 2, 3, 4]. There are a lot of speculations and even active discussions about random number generation in Linux, especially as implemented in hardware (e.g. by Intel). Without sufficiently high entropy in random number generators, not only would Linux as a kernel be vulnerable; SSL and SSH too would suffer.

Some of these issues we have covered here before, noting that Red Hat works a little too closely with the NSA. Right now we are quite fascinated by the news [1,2] that FreeBSD won’t use Intel’s and Via’s hardware random number generators. Why? NSA.

In other news about FreeBSD, version 10 is approaching [3,4] after 20 years of development and it should have better graphics support [5]. Marking yet more milestones, the operating system “Is Getting Into The Magazine Business” [6], it runs in the record-breaking [7] PS4 (in some sense [8]). and it should be released some time this month [9]. FreeBSD is not the only BSD game in town (DragonFlyBSD gets some attention [10,11]), but it it the leading among the BSDs, so its voice when it comes to privacy and security issues sure counts. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. FreeBSD won’t use Intel & Via’s hardware random number generators, believes NSA has compromised them

2. “We cannot trust” Intel and Via’s chip-based crypto, FreeBSD developers say

   Developers of the FreeBSD operating system will no longer allow users to trust processors manufactured by Intel and Via Technologies as the sole source of random numbers needed to generate cryptographic keys that can’t easily be cracked by government spies and other adversaries.

   The change, which will be effective in the upcoming FreeBSD version 10.0, comes three months after secret documents leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) subcontractor Edward Snowden said the US spy agency was able to decode vast swaths of the Internet’s encrypted traffic. Among other ways, The New York Times, Pro Publica, and The Guardian reported in September, the NSA and its British counterpart defeat encryption technologies by working with chipmakers to insert backdoors, or cryptographic weaknesses, in their products.

3. FreeBSD 10.0 Beta 4 Has Surfaced

   The final beta build ahead of the long-awaited and delayed FreeBSD 10.0 has now been made available.

4. It Doesn’t Look Like FreeBSD 10 Will Ship This Year

5. A Roadmap For FreeBSD Graphics Support

   The latest FreeBSD code (for 10.0) supports not only Intel KMS but also the open-source AMD Radeon driver ported from the Linux kernel. This Intel/Radeon KMS support has since trickled into DragonFlyBSD and other BSD platforms. However, not all is up to par when it comes to graphics support on FreeBSD. Here’a a road-map and test matrix with some other items still on the BSD developers’ agenda.

6. FreeBSD Is Getting Into The Magazine Business

7. Record Breaking Launch For PS4

   Sony’s PS4 has well and truly landed, becoming the fastest selling video game console in UK history. It overturns the 8 year record held by the original PSP and eclipses the launch week sales of both PS3 and Xbox One.

8. It’s Official, Playstation 4 Runs FreeBSD Kernel

   Sony has just launched its PlayStation 4 console, and it seems that the rumors about being based on FreeBSD are actually true.

9. FreeBSD 10.0 Is Still Running Behind Schedule

   There were plans originally to ship FreeBSD 10.0 as stable in November, but that isn’t going to happen. It’s not even clear if FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE will be ready to ship before the end of the calendar year, but at least progress is being made and when the release does happen there’s a great number of new features.

10. HAMMER2 File-System Gets Stabilization Improvements

    HAMMER2 file-system improvements have landed hot on the heels of the exciting DragonFlyBSD 3.6 release.

11. DragonFlyBSD 3.6 Does Intel/AMD KMS, DPorts, Better SMP

Summary: Nepotism incarnated; Apple now appeals to politicians rather than judges, having lost the technical race to Linux; Apple’s top UNIX guru quits

Apple’s patent chief recently left the company, joining some prominent technical people who left this declining marketing and litigation company. The latest departure is that of Apple’s operating systems asset, who quit. As one article put it, “Hubbard left Apple last month to return to the world of open source UNIX, taking the chief technology officer post at a iXsystems, a company that offers servers and other data center hardware that runs FreeBSD.”

Concurrently, Apple continues pursuing embargo against Android devices. Apple uses the ITC and also litigates against Google through Motorola.

Mr. Pogson said, “When Is Prior Art Not Prior Art? When The US Federal Circuit Ignores It.”

Yes, Apple enjoys special treatment again. As Pamela Jones put it, “Apple started the show in this particular tent of the overall smartphone patent wars circus, suing Motorola at the ITC for infringement of various claims of Apple’s ’607 and ’828 patents, which are about touchscreens and multi-touch.”

“Apple keeps trying to cheat and game the system; when its claims are found to be empty it cries to its government and gets its way.”And let’s not forget the recent pardon to Apple from the president of drone assassinations, illegal surveillance and torture. The US government is superseding the law especially for Apple as the Obama administration pushed back against an embargo. Jones had this to say about it: “So, it was a bit like the papal special dispensations of history, where the law said X, but you are let off the hook from having to keep it. That makes Apple’s reported public response particularly offensive, when it said, “Samsung was wrong to abuse the patent system in this way.” Samsung didn’t abuse the patent system. It was, as you will see, exactly the opposite, according to the ITC Opinion. And while the President can do whatever he wishes regarding public policy, the ITC followed the statute, since it has no policy powers. In short, one unavoidably must conclude that if Samsung had been the US company and Apple the Korean one, there would have been no pardon. That’s the bottom line, I’m afraid. As Jamie Love tweeted, “What Froman and USTR will now have to explain is why India and other countries can’t also consider public interest in patent cases.” As I’ll show you, one of the things the ITC considered was public comments warning that changing the terms for FRAND patent owners would make sweeping changes to trade laws, and Korea has already registered its concerns. I’m all for reforming the patent system, as you know, but if you want to reform it, how about making it *more* fair, not less? Playing favorites based on country of origin doesn’t aim for that noble goal. It’s indisputable that this has harmed Samsung, and since the ITC, which examined the facts in detail, found it was the innocent party in this picture, what can be the justification for Apple’s comment?”

The US press and the US government have given Apple special treatment for far too long. The corporate press covers this like it’s a sporting match, not science. Apple keeps trying to cheat and game the system; when its claims are found to be empty it cries to its government and gets its way. One writer for CNN (corporate press) wrote:

Apple and Samsung’s fiercest battle isn’t playing out in the smartphone market.

This is simply not true. Be sure to watch the image they use. Samsung was the one attacked by Apple, it’s not mutual. █

–Bruce Perens

Summary: SCO’s proxy battle is not over and more stories emerge which serve as reminders of proxy wars

According to SCO specialist/expert Groklaw, IBM has responded to this continued effort by SCO to revive litigation more than ten years after it started. It is being summarised as follows:”IBM has filed its response [PDF] to SCO’s motion asking for reconsideration of the Court’s order denying SCO’s motion to reopen the SCO v. IBM case. I have it as text for you.

“Is SCO selling a lie again?”“IBM tells Judge David Nuffer that it doesn’t oppose reopening the case at all — in fact it says it should happen. IBM has an proposed outline on how to proceed thereafter. Its plan differs from SCO’s.”

The Microsoft booster, in the mean time, took McBride’s claims at face value and wrote: “Darl McBride, the former chief executive officer of SCO, says he was offered $2 million by the Utah attorney general in May 2009 in exchange for taking down a website criticizing an area business person. Still pursuing the years-long legal battle against Novell and IBM over Unix and Linux intellectual property, SCO needed money at the time.”

“Microsoft mostly had the press on its side when it engaged in rackteering, spinning that as ‘licensing’, so the press was complicit.”Pamela Jones wrote in her site that “So many people sent me this url, I am posting the story. Otherwise I wasn’t going to. I don’t personally believe for a moment that this is the entire story. Darl has always been good at getting the media to print what *he* says is the story, invariably that he’s been wronged, but in time we get the rest of the story. For example, while he claimed for years that SCO owned the copyrights to Unix, it turned out to be untrue. So all the “wrongs” done were done to the media and court victims of SCO. So the real question is, why is he wanting the media to tell his side of the story now, after all this time? I note the article links to the Salt Lake Tribune, which says the FBI is investigating. That’s why I was going to wait until we have more information about all sides of the story before reaching any conclusions or even linking to the Darl McBride PR.”

And later, in the middle of the weekend, she added: “Here’s a question: on what basis would Darl McBride ask for $2 million to shut down a web site that the target alleged was defamatory? Or any web site? Allegedly the target owed $200,000 or so, although he denied it, so where does the $2 million figure come in? Why would he even agree to such a deal, if he did?”

“How likely is it that trolls like these wage war at the behest of someone else.”Is SCO selling a lie again? And if so, how about fact-checking? Are mere allegations guarantee of news coverage? Maybe it depends on who’s doing it. Microsoft mostly had the press on its side when it engaged in rackteering, spinning that as ‘licensing’, so the press was complicit.

It is worth mentioning that the company dismantled by Singer’s Mafia (Elliott Associates, the vulture fund) shows its effect in weaponising patents, having just seen patents (and copyright also) on load balancers being used for extortion. One report says: “Of 33 prospective jurors that were considered, five of them had patents of their own. (This trial was in the same court where a patent-owning jury foreman was likely instrumental to Apple’s blockbuster patent win over Samsung last summer.) No word yet on whether any terms of the settlement will be made public.”

This comes amid intervention by the same thugs who gave Novell’s patents to Apple and Microsoft (CPTN). Motorola came under fire from another vulture fund, Mr. Icahn, before it nearly gave its patents to Microsoft and Apple (Google needed to grossly overpay to outbid this duopoly of patent aggressors).

“Remember which company is scanning a lot of literature (it’s not Microsoft, which dropped these endeavours).”Here is an update from a case of patent trolls fighting Google/Motorola and another naming of patent trolls by the FRAND Blog that showed Apple and Microsoft ganging up against Android using FRAND/patent pools, whose purpose is to raise the cost of Android. The blog says: “Today brought the publication of what looks like is the first lawsuit of its kind — a complaint brought by a state attorney general (here, Vermont’s) against a non-practicing entity, alleging that the NPE’s patent assertion activities constitute unfair and deceptive trade practices under Vermont state law. (The suit was actually filed May 8, but it became publicly available today when the defendant was served.) The complaint was filed against MPHJ Technology Investments LLC, a company that has been characterized by some as the “scanner troll” — because it has sent demand letters to thousands of businesses that use scan-to-email technology.”

How likely is it that trolls like these wage war at the behest of someone else. Remember which company is scanning a lot of literature (it’s not Microsoft, which dropped these endeavours). █

Summary: Why Microsoft ‘supports’ GNU/Linux (while attacking it) and why one must never rely on Microsoft products for managing UNIXy machines

Using Hyper-V hype for eternal deception, Microsoft wants people to believe that it is playing nice with the competition, but this article reveals that words are not actions:

Microsoft’s System Center platform includes a wide range of options for configuring and managing Unix and Linux systems. However, when it comes to rolling out and managing virtual machines and creating private cloud environments, there’s not much room for Unix.

The reason Microsoft has been pretending to support rivals is that those rivals are now market leaders and it is not getting easier for Microsoft because even its booster face the reality:

Maybe the PC isn’t dead, but the upgrade cycle may be at death’s door, according to an IDC analyst.

In the wake of very ugly numbers released today by market researchers IDC and Gartner, Windows 8 is getting a lot of the blame.

It deserves that. Vista 8 is a failure that even Microsoft folks admit is a failure; this is why Microsoft is now focusing on bringing Office to other platforms and wants to ‘play nice’ with Linux. It is everything to do with profit, just like the patent extortion. Without the desktop monopoly, Microsoft at the back end becomes irrelevant too.

Recalling antitrust testimonies from Microsoft’s patent troll, and writing about lack of technical edge in Microsoft products [1, 2] (today I had to explain to someone that many people use Windows definiteluynot out of choice),

Pogson says that desktops/laptops are on the decline, citing some more numbers and analyses. The end of Windows domination was long-awaited by many. We’re beyond the tipping point now. Patents are a threat right now and so is Restricted Boot, so the next two posts will deal with each in turn. █

Summary: BSD developers called “zealots” in a magazine from the Association for Computing Machinery

THIS bizarrely-titled item from a respectable source got the attention of some BSD developers.

“I was just reading the April’s issue of the Communications of the ACM (the flagship magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery), and noticed that OpenBSD and its developers were mentioned in one article, in a rather negative way,” writes one person in the OpenBSD lists.

“Some FRAND-pushing lobbyists are using the CACM to criticize proponents of open standards,” wrote to us an informant, who noticed this redundant attack on developers who merely did the right thing. █

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (username: dmr, September 8, 1941 — October 8/9, 2011) was an American computer scientist notable for developing C and for having influence on other programming languages, as well as operating systems such as Multics and Unix. He received the Turing Award in 1983 and the National Medal of Technology 1998 on April 21, 1999. Ritchie was the head of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007. [Read on]

Summary: UNIX in the Czech Republic amid Westernisation

According to the following Cablegate cable, “The CERGE-EI library [...] has been a depository library of the World Bank. Computer facilities include a UNIX lab with high-capacity works stations and several PC labs. The ratio of computers to students is among the highest in Europe.”

It is all in ¶10 of the following cable.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 001415 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USAID FOR GEORGE LIKE, DCHA/PVC-ASHA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON [Economic Conditions], EZ [Czech Republic] 
SUBJECT: CZECH REPUBLIC:  STRONG SUPPORT FOR (CERGE-EI) 
CENTER FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH AND GRADUATE EDUCATION -- 
ECONOMIC INSTITUTE 
 
REF: STATE 159943 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  Post strongly supports ASHA financial 
assistance for CERGE-EI, the leading economics doctoral 
program in the region, fully-accredited in both the Czech 
Republic and the United States.  CERGE-EI has the best 
economics library in the country, containing a wealth of 
American texts and journals that teach and promote 
market-based economics.  END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
Demonstration Center for American Ideas and Practices in 
Education 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
¶2.  CERGE-EI was founded in 1991 "to meet the post-communist 
countries' critical need for economists, to educate a new 
economic leadership for the region in the region."  CERGE-EI 
provides an "american-style" education and is accredited by 
the New York State Board of Regents.  Its four-year doctoral 
program consists of two-years of course work followed by 
two-years of supervised dissertation research.  The working 
language of the institution is English, and CERGE-EI 
encourages its students to conduct part of their dissertation 
research at partner institutions in Western Europe and North 
America. 
 
¶3.  CERGE-EI's English Department is unique among major 
doctoral programs in economics, and provides students with 
the skills necessary to successfully participate in economic 
research and publication at the highest levels.  As 
increasing percentage of students in doctoral programs in the 
U.S. come from non-English speaking backgrounds, visitors to 
CERGE-EI frequently observe that the innovative program at 
CERGE-EI and the integral role English instruction plays in 
its doctoral program provide a model that should be adopted 
at their own institutions. 
 
¶4. The Executive and Supervisory Committee of CERGE-EI draw 
distinguished economists from top U.S. universities:  Joseph 
Stiglitz from Columbia University; Philippe Aghio of Harvard 
University; Orley Ashenfelter, Richard Quandt and Henry 
Farber of Princeton University; Jan Svenar and Jan Kemtna of 
the University of Michigan;  Gerard Roland, Michelle White 
and Roger Gordon from the University of California system. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
Importance and Quality of CERGE-EI in the Field of Education 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
¶5.  One of CERGE-EI's primary goals is to educate future 
economic leaders of countries in transition throughout the 
world.  The student profile is as follows:  60 percent men; 
40 percent women; 25 percent from Russia, Ukraine and 
Belarus; 24 percent from the Czech Republic, 20 percent from 
the Balkans; 18 percent from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia; 11 
percent other former Soviet states; 2 percent from the rest 
of the world.  80 percent of CERGE-EI graduates are employed 
in the region.  The average grade point average of entering 
students is above 3.6 (out of 4.0). 
 
¶6.  A glance at CERGE-EI alumni profile speaks to the 
importance and quality of its program; 38 percent of CERGE-EI 
graduates find employment in the public sector (ministries, 
central banks and international organizations), 25 percent in 
university teaching, and 37 percent in the private sector. 
Graduates include economists at International Financial 
Institutions (IFIs) such as the International Monetary Fund, 
the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and 
Development.  Czech National Bank Governor Zdenek Tuma is a 
former CERGE-EI faculty member.  Graduates in the private 
sector are employed by private banks Citibank Komercni Banka) 
and consulting firms (e.g. McKinsey & Company, the Boston 
Consulting Group).  Graduates teach in Universities in the 
region, in Western Europe and in the U.S. (e.g., Tilburg 
University in the Netherlands, University of Iowa).  When the 
World Bank commissioned a major study calling form reform of 
Czech capital markets, CERGE-EI professors joined the study 
team to provide local expertise and CERGE-EI students were 
employed to conduct data analysis. 
 
¶7.  Recognizing the critical impact of economic training on 
the success of reform, CERGE-EI offered to provide doctoral 
study in Prague for two Iraqi students.  As such, CERGE-EI 
has been at the crux of transition countries' struggle to 
from a totalitarian, centrally-planned economies to market 
democracies.  In the words of CERGE-EI, "experience in the 
post-communist world has demonstrated that early intervention 
to establish an effective higher education system is a 
critical component of supporting the enormous political and 
social changes necessary to build democracy and prosperity." 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
Competence in Professional Skills, Sound Management and 
Financial Practices 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
¶8.  CERGE-EI is a tax exempt (IRS 501C3 status) institution 
subject to U.S. audits.  Its 2003 budget was USD 3.0 million, 
excluding grant-finance expenditures on research and other 
programmatic activities.  2003 income sources break down as 
follows: 
 
26.7 percent Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic; 
22.1 percent affiliate Charles University; 
13.5 percent Corporate Donations; 
14.4 percent International Organizations; 
8 percent Earned Income including Grant Overheads; 
7.7 percent Individual Donations; 
6.7 percent Interest & Endowment Income; 
0.9 percent Foundation & Government grants. 
 
2003 expenses breakdown as follows: 
26.4 percent Permanent Faculty; 
18.4 percent Student Stipends & Mobility; 
12.7 percent Physical plant & Building renovation. 
10 percent library; 
8.6 percent support staff 
7.1 percent materials & supplies; 
6.4 percent Development & Public Relations; 
4.4 percent Senior Part-time faculty; 
4.3 percent Computer Department; 
1.7 percent seminar & research support 
 
----------- 
The Library 
----------- 
¶9.  Established in 1992, it is simply the best economics 
library in the Czech Republic, and one of the best in Central 
and Eastern Europe.  Econoffs toured the library and were 
impressed by the number of recognizable U.S. economic texts 
(used for introductory and intermediate micro- and 
macro-economic courses) and U.S. economic journals.  The 
estimated number of registered users of the library is 
currently about 2000.  The library contains 25,000 books and 
270 periodicals, including journals published by:  American 
Economic Association, American Statistical Association, 
Brookings Institutions, University of Chicago Press, 
University of Wisconsin Press, MIT Press, Cornell University. 
Over 600 full-text on-line journals are available in the 
electronic library.. 
 
¶10.  The CERGE-EI library contains THE most extensive and 
up-to-date economics collection in Central and Eastern 
Europe, with over 80,000 printed items and subscribe to over 
250 periodicals and electronic databases.  One of the first 
open-stack facilities in the region, the CERGE-EI library is 
widely used by the general public as well as by students from 
other institutions.  Since December 1994, it has been a 
depository library of the World Bank.  Computer facilities 
include a UNIX lab with high-capacity works stations and 
several PC labs.  The ratio of computers to students is among 
the highest in Europe. 
 
------------------------ 
Local & Embassy Comments 
------------------------ 
¶11. Econoffs conducted interviews with four local contacts 
from government and business sectors, as well as with 
locally-hired staff at the Embassy who interact with 
CERGE-EI.  CERGE-EI is a highly regarded institution, 
particularly known for its independent, intellectual and 
theoretical academic content, and with the best library in 
the country.   Any criticism of CERGE-EI tends to be its 
"over" emphasis on theory versus applied economics.  In June 
2005, the Ambassador commended CERGE-EI for its continued 
leadership in higher education and success in building 
partnerships with American and other international university 
and training programs.  In the Embassy's efforts to support 
Czech-American cultural and educational exchanges, we are 
continuing our partnership with CERGE-EI through the 
Embassy's Office of Public Affairs.CABANISS

UNIX in general is hardly mentioned in Cablegate (only 3 occurrences in a quarter of a million cables). █

Summary: Bad signs appear as Attachmate puts SUSE aside but continues to ‘hoard’ UNIX rights, dissociating one’s importance to the other

ATTACHMATE has been ensuring that it can maintain its status as a proprietary software company. Executives who were committed to a different agenda were mostly removed, expelled, or simply left. Mono developers were fired without exception and SUSE was relocated and relegated to Germany, where developers are now dependent on funding from Microsoft. What is actually left in Attachmate which is “open source”? Even Vibe was axed as we had predicted all along; it was in part based on Free software from Google (Wave).

Attachmate, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is putting new people in charge and the Deccan Herald (insisting on just Internet Explorer or Netscape even in 2011) speaks about the spinoff called SUSE, which is basically partly funded by Microsoft now (to help put Microsoft tax on GNU/Linux servers). Attachmate is also the ‘owner’ of early UNIX copyrights, according to this latest report which adds:

“Novell’s board of directors adopted a resolution approving the sale, which specifically mentioned the copyrights were to be retained by Novell,” the judges said in the opinion.

This was the second time the appeals court ruled on this case. In the first appeal it reversed a lower-court ruling in Novell’s favor and sent the case back. After a two-week trial, the jury ruled Novell owned the copyrights. SCO appealed.

A spokeswoman for Linden, Utah-based SCO, Chantell Ferrin, didn’t immediately reply to messages seeking comment.

There is also a derailed analysis behind an apparent paywall at Lexology. We are still not sure what Attachmate will do with these copyrights. It is not as though the company has any commitment to Free software or to UNIX. Given the amount of time and money Novell has invested in this case, it is rather unlikely that UNIX will just be left there to rot and bring no revenue to Attachmate, even if through a sale. Unlike Novell, Attachmate has no need to keep up appearance and keep UNIX away from enemies of Linux. Will these be sold to IBM maybe? Or perhaps to some foe of Red Hat? This is a question that has generally bothered us since 2007 and we wrote about it many times before. We must pay attention to Attachmate’s actions and statements. █

THERE IS news this week about SCO’s defeat which Sean Michael Kerner, Pamela Jones and others who are familiar with the case have covered. Well, as noted in Slashdot, Attachmate has reaffirmed its grip over UNIX, which basically means that nothing has changed and the virtual assets remain where they are arguably safer. The coverage from Utah’s press (sometimes pro-SCO) says that SCO lost the copyright case in this age where emphasis is being put on patents in the fight against GNU/Linux and Android.

A federal appeals court has upheld a jury verdict and a lower court ruling in a trial that found Novell Inc. — not The SCO Group — owned the copyrights to the Unix computer software operating system before 1995.

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the jury’s verdict from last year in a lawsuit filed by SCO in 2004 as part of its broader efforts to sue IBM over alleged use of Unix code as a model for parts of the rival Linux operating system.

The court upheld the verdict against SCO, saying “ample evidence in the record supported the jury’s verdict and Novell’s position.” It also upheld rulings in Novell’s favor by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart, who presided over the trial.

This is all very nice. However, to lose sight of the fact that Novell is now being used by Attachmate (via SUSE) to pay Microsoft for GNU/Linux regardless of copyrights would not be wise. The main problem has shifted along with Microsoft’s strategy.

The Register joined YouTube on the 9th of May (2011) and it reminds of us those ads disguised as “content” which it did back in the days for Novell and Microsoft A day or so ago it uploaded this video which characteristically spins a patent deal as collaboration. Viewer should beware and see if they can spot the spin. Novell is not the “good guy”. Like in many wars, both sides can be “bad guys”, ass Zinn (a former bombardier) once explained. █

ATTACHMSFT has not been saying much about its plans. It drops some clues every now and then, but none of this amounts to contractual commitment. SUSE’s managers mentioned they would support Mono, but the following article contradicts it somewhat. “New Suse director swears off Mono,” is how our reader describes it, quoting:

Brauckmann confirms that SUSE is no longer investing in the project, but quickly added that SUSE would be supporting any commercial customers using Mono that have support contracts. “The rest of the SUSE roadmap stays intact,” Brauckmann says. “No other products will be changed.”

Groklaw is more active than ever, especially in the News Picks section where Pamela Jones is very omnipresent (and who can blame her? It is hard to let SCO and Microsoft just carry on their attacks without immediate rebuttals). She quotes from this article, concluding: “This is the first positive sign I’ve seen, in that Ralf Flaxa provided a declaration in support of IBM against SCO back in 2006.”

She seems to believe that the SCO case will carry on and quoting this Desert News article, she notes that “David Bradford, if you recall, testified for Novell against SCO at the most recent jury trial.” To quote:

Still, he said he has “high hopes” for the future of Novell in the wake of its acquisition by The Attachmate Group.

Techrights begs to differ. SUSE under AttachMSFT is basically in bad hands and users are sensing it:

The dust is settling in Attachmate’s purchase of Novell, with Attachmate officially announcing the leadership and organization of its new SUSE business unit on May 18. But despite management assurances, SUSE users remain concerned about the future care and feeding of their Linux distribution of choice.

Nils Brauckmann, the unit’s new president and general manager, pledged “to build a dedicated and focused SUSE business unit, strengthen the SUSE brand with the SUSE logo and get the SUSE message to customers, alliances and the media, and align resources.”

Novell’s account uploads in YouTube are still for proprietary software [1, 2, 3], so this is probably where AttachMSFT is heading. SCO was the same after the Caldera days.

Speaking of the SCO case, Groklaw says that bankruptcy hearings are still being delayed, which probably serves SCO pretty well because Novell is in a state of turmoil/disarray at the moment , just like SCO. Is somebody buying time?

The bankruptcy court has cancelled the hearing scheduled for next Monday, May 23rd, and rescheduled any open matters from that hearing for June 17 at 2:30 p.m. The bankruptcy court has also issued a new Omnibus Hearing Order setting the dates for future hearings. In addition to the June 17th session, hearings are now scheduled for July 18, 2011 at 2:30 p.m., August 15, 2011 at 11:00 a.m., and September 12, 2011 at 10:30 a.m.

SCO and Microsoft would love to tax such things. They also try to tax CentOS using proprietary software addons, as we explained earlier in the week. The other day we showed a post from Microsoft about the subject, but what we did not notice was its author (link rel=”nofollow”ed). “Sandy Gupta of SCO infamy, who tried to persuade the court that ELF is copyrighted by SCO and no one can use it without infringing SCO’s rights, now invites people to run CentOS under Microsoft HypeV control. What a bad idea,” put it our reader, who basically paraphrased Groklaw. The original wording from Jones: “OMG. Look who posted this. It’s Sandy Gupta of SCO fame or infamy, depending on your point of view. Remember his code collage trying to persuade the court that ELF is copyrighted by SCO and no one can use it without infringing SCO’s rights, and how Dr. Brian Kernighan called Gupta’s copyright analysis “indefensible”? When he first went to Microsoft, Gupta was Director, Technical Competitive Strategy of the Server & Tools Division. Gupta’s now General Manager of Marketing, Open Solutions Group, Microsoft. Frankly, that makes me start wondering if anything will ever really come of this CentOS announcement, or whether it’s so much marketing.” Gupta now received big paychecks from Microsoft ('pulling an O'Kelly', the usual way). █

“[Microsoft's] Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would ‘backstop,’ or guarantee in some way, BayStar’s investment…. Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar’s investment in SCO.”

–Larry Goldfarb, BayStar, key investor in SCO

Summary: How SCO’s lies about Unix ownership are being propagated by the corporate press

THE SCO club keeps deceiving. Here is the erroneous claim that SCO owns Unix even though it’s not. See the headline [1, 2] “Las Vegas-based UnXis buys Unix operating system, service contracts from bankrupt SCO Group”, which pretends they bought Unix (sounds like the trademark is at stake, as the press release contained a lie [1, 2]). And also, the same deception can be found here. Are these articles being researched for?

SCO insider Maureen O’Gara repeats the false claims from SCO: “SCO, which retains the litigation, could still present a problem if the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver gives it leave to continue prosecuting its suit against IBM for fleshing out Linux with Unix code SCO thought it bought from Novell.” IBM was not “fleshing out Linux with Unix code”. Just repeating the allegation won’t make it any more true.

The SCO boosters, including those who visit the company and spread its lies, are still at it. To be fair, these people are also those who promote Microsoft’s agenda, so there is clearly an overlap. SCO boosters, including Rob Enderle, are currently attacking Google, attacking Linux, and attacking just about every threat that exists to Microsoft’s monopoly, as usual.

SJVN says that “SCO is dead, SCO Unix lives on”:

SCO, the anti-Linux lawsuit monster is dead. There are still twitches left in the corpse in the bankruptcy court morgue, but when even Groklaw retires from the field, you know SCO’s as dead as a doornail. But, SCO’s Unix operating systems, OpenServer and UnixWare, will live on under the aegis of a new company, UnXis.

This has some people, including Pamela Jones, editor and founder of Groklaw worried that UnXis might follow in SCO’s lawsuit crazy tracks. “Targeting end users? Uh oh. That has a creepy sound, considering the heritage of SCO, if you know what I mean.”

Interestingly enough, looking at SJVN’s ZDNet blog, it is all that’s left there which covers “Open Source”, with only a handful of posts in about 10 days. ZDNet almost stopped covering FOSS after firing Dana Blankenhorn, who had parroted Microsoft Florian anyway. We are currently investigating ZDNet’s ties with Microsoft as we found something of great significance during our research. We contacted ZDNet to give it an opportunity to defend itself before it’s published. █

Summary: SCO sort of nym-shifts and already tells lies to the public, regarding Unix ownership

AS GROKLAW declares victory and ceases new activity (starting middle of May), SCO’s new lies will be harder to find and respond to. According to this new press release, UnXis [1, 2, 3, 4] is already lying, so it is not a great time for Groklaw to exit; it already disputes the following part, which is a lie: “UnXis is committed to investing $25 million over the next 18 months into product and technology developments, as well as building upon its world-class management, sales and customer support team. UnXis has retained all customer contracts, the UNIX and UNIXWARE trademarks and an installed base of 32,000 customer contracts maintained in 82 countries, including McDonald’s, Siemens, Sperbank, China Post, Thomson Reuters and the US Department of Defense.”

Actually, Novell owns Unix (likely to be passed to AttachMSFT soon).

Who would be left to rebut and counter disinformation from SCO^H^HUnXis? Speaking of disinformation, when Microsoft Florian is not busy making legal threats against those who expose him (we are still not not sure if Dana Blankenhorn got fired from ZDNet because of a post arising from Florian), he is lobbying hard and bragging. Such mobbyists only write about one strand of issues this week (except correspondence with Microsoft MVPs and boosters) and it’s Groklaw or Techrights; it’s his familiar intimidation and defamation tactics. Watch this Slashdot thread:

o on over to LWN and look at Florian’s continued meltdown about how PJ isn’t relevant and he is.

http://lwn.net/Articles/437650/ [lwn.net]

There’s a lot said there that exposes Florian’s true colors.

He heaps praise on the people who spread the most FUD about Linux. Robert Enderle, MOG, Dan “Lyin’” Lyons, and Ed Bott led the charge in the media against Linux. The only person he left out to praise was Rudy De Haas (“Paul Murphy” pseudonym). I’m sorry, but the list of above people have nothing worth listening to and his defense of them shows what side of the fence he’s on.

See other comments. Exposed pretty badly, eh? But looking ahead, the mobbyists will have more time to defame and distort the reality about Groklaw (revisionism), while Groklaw is no longer there to defend itself. We fear that Pamela Jones’ departure is a massive loss to everyone except SCO and Microsoft. █

Summary: SCO gets more money for anti-Linux litigation, thanks to an alleged purchase from an entity tied to former SCO managers

The Wayne Gray UNIX case against Novell notwithstanding (there is more news coverage at Mondaq), the big news at the moment is about SCO.

Our reader Wayne has asked, “The SCO Group Sold?” Another reader, Patrick, links to Slashdot, which in turn links to news that we covered the other day in brief. It’s about UnXis and one must remember that SCO’s Hans Bayer is behind it (at least in part). As a quick refresher see the following older posts:

• Alleged Attack Site of Darl McBride Gets Suspended
• Today’s SCO Bankruptcy Hearing is Called Off, Potential Suitors Named
• Novell Responds to SCO Ruling, More News Coverage
• A Look at the Microsoft-funded SCO Lawsuit in Light of Newer Anti-Linux Microsoft Lawsuits
• IBM’s Latest Filing Regarding SCO Bankruptcy Mentions “Fraud”
• SCO Lies About Hans Bayer
• SCO Scandals Get Worse: unXis Seems to be All About SCO
• Groklaw Unearths Another SCO Scandal; SCO Heads Sued for Theft, Computer Fraud and Abuse
• SCO “Wants to Sue Linux Users Some More” After Another Mysterious Cash Injection

Here is part of Groklaw‘s latest analysis of this important development (Groklaw also saved the press release [PDF] locally):

Well, not yet. Eric Le Blan, now called Vice Chairman of UnXis, is quoted as speaking “outside the courtroom”, of all odd things to mention in a press release. Who is he supposed to be talking to for a press release? Is this more SCO street theater? Le Blan says UnXis will restore SCO to its “former glory”. And “UnXis will soon emerge as a major player in the information technology industry.”

Uh oh. There seems to be a disconnect with reality in this picture. UnXis has no history in software. What I keep remembering is that UnXis tried to buy SCO once before, and the court wouldn’t let it happen. Maybe the press release is to impress the judge. Who else would believe it at this point? Investors, maybe? You can’t find a dumber bunch, from all we’ve seen in the SCO saga.

I take this more as PR for the court and for the market, because while they talk like it’s a done deal, unless the fix is in, the Delaware court has to approve this proposed deal, and there could be objections filed still.

Bill Rochelle wrote the following for Bloomberg:

SCO Trustee Picks unXis as Buyer for Assets

The Chapter 11 trustee for software developer SCO Group Inc., after several delays, held an auction and selected unXis Inc. as having the best offer to buy the business of selling Unix system software products and services. The sale will be up for approval at a Feb. 16 hearing.

unXis is to pay $600,000 cash and give the trustee warrants for 3 percent of its stock. The warrants will be exercisable after unXis has raised $4 million in equity financings. The exercise price will be price for the stock paid by the investor in the last round of financing that brings the total to $4 million.

In August 2009 the bankruptcy judge called for a Chapter 11 trustee, approximately one month before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver ruled in the company’s favor after six years of litigation with Waltham, Massachusetts-based Novell Inc. The case went back to the district court where the judge and jury largely ruled against SCO with regard to rights in certain Unix software incorporated in network systems. The trustee sought permission to hold the auction after SCO’s interest in Unix was clarified.

After filing for bankruptcy protection in September 2007, SCO and an affiliate filed schedules listing combined assets of $14.2 million and debt totaling $5.2 million.

The case is In re SCO Group Inc., 07-11337, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

One must remember that unXis seems like a plot to refinance SCO and behind it there is some former SCO staff. Something smells funny here. █

Summary: Darl McBride of SCO infamy is believed to be playing hide and seek, or perhaps just getting into a legal mess

A scandalous smear site which we wrote about a year and half ago is said to have been suspended:

This is for historians, in case any of them wonder who was behind the scurrilous smear campaign that showed up on SkylineCowboy.com: if you visit today, you get redirected to a WebHost4Life message that says the site has been “suspended”. I guess somebody didn’t pay his bills. The url of the redirection is http://www.webhost4life.com/templates/lightsOut.bml?lightsoutuser=cattleback

Cattleback. The name of the subsidiary that SCO created and transferred a patent to and then sold off in 2007 was, if you recall, Cattleback Holdings. And Darl McBride was alleged to be calling himself “Skyline Cowboy” on that site in litigation about the smear campaign and the “loan” McBride said he made to Mark Robbins, plus lots more, that ended up tossed out of court on a technicality. And here the web host says the user behind SkylineCowboy.com used the nym “cattleback”.

And in other news, SCO is looking to raise $600,000 by selling to unXis:

Yes, same old, same old. SCO proposes to sell to the winning bidder, surprise! unXis again. This time the purchase price is $600,000. A little water under that bridge. The last time unXis tried to buy SCO assets, even the bankruptcy judge wouldn’t let it happen, deciding to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee instead. And you know how well that worked out.

Very dodgy. From the people who call themselves after ranch items nothing can ever come that’s truly shocking. █

Summary: Wayne Gray’s case against Novell proceeds and opinions about Mono continue to come

Novell’s disputes over the UNIX trademark/copyrights withstanding (Gray vs Novell^*, not just SCO), there are many questions arising because of Novell’s passage of nearly 1,000 patents to CPTN, which Microsoft is heading [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].

The key question is no longer just who gets UNIX copyrights. There is another question about patents now, as Novell helps feed the direct competition of GNU/Linux. It even puts this competition right inside the body of GNU/Linux (e.g. Mono) and the leader in this area, Red Hat, repels it continually. “Mono Vs Fedora: More Facts, less opinions” is a new post worth reading. To quote some bits:

I, and looks like many of Fedora’s contributors too, think like Free Software Foundation. Make a system Mono dependent is a gratuitous risk, because it’s based in Microsoft tecnology, who have patents over this tecnology. Must I say any thing else?

If you said yes, very well, I’ll say more. Why will you use your enemies’ pencil if you have yours? Why will you eat the apple of your neighbor, if in your yard there’s a lot of them? You’ll assume the risk of being without the pencil some day or hungry, this is a fact. You have no control about your enemies’ pencil or about the apples of your neighbors. If you begin to write better than your enemie, you’re using theirs pencil, and he’s able to stop you from writing. If you eat much of the yours neighbor’s apple, he’ll not give it to you anymore.

I’m trying to say that we lose many applications like Banshee, Tomboy and many others if Microsoft simply use the power of the patents it acquires. And can you imagine the size of the problem if in this day your system is stuck with that language.

We recently mentioned how Fedora drove away Mono boosters. Canonical ought to do the same because the next release comes with at least 3 Mono-based applications. █
_____
^* This was covered by Groklaw before (e.g. here), but it is still going on.

Summary: Novell’s UNIX is moving to other hands and there is insufficient confidence that it will stay in safe hands

GROKLAW is down at the moment (has been down for a while), but it showed that SCO’s bankruptcy hearing had been delayed yet again (it happens all the time, repeatedly [1, 2, 3, 4]). It is becoming a source of comedy and ridicule working to the detriment of the legal system.

The SCO case has just proceeded as expected (covered a few days ago). Groklaw has some reports:

Our reporter at the oral argument in SCO’s appeal of its loss to Novell before the jury and before the judge in Utah District Court today has now filed his reports. It sounds from the reports like it went quite well for Novell, although we can’t be sure until the order issues, which could be months.

Would it amaze you if I told you that the report shows that SCO raised an entirely new argument today for the first time? That’s a no-no. Well, they are The Amazings. Also, SCO’s version of what the 10th Circuit ruling was after its first appeal is … well, read it for yourself, and you will see why the judges kept correcting SCO today.

Earlier today we found some articles which speak about Groklaw’s interpretation of SCO, Novell, Microsoft, and AttachMSFT [sic]. Groklaw opined that AttachMSFT may sell UNIX and/or the remainder of Novell’s patents to some entity which is hostile towards Linux. This relates to the patents passed by Novell to CPTN — a serious subject which was previously covered in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. It is a sort of cartel, but there are more such cartels which are strongly connected to Microsoft and help mimic in an aggressive fashion something like OIN (mind the new press release “OIN Licensing Strength Continues in Fourth Quarter as OIN Announces Expanded Effort on Licensing the Linux User Community”), where their goal is to attack companies and attack Linux, unlike the OIN which merely defends something.

Erika Morphy from ECT has this recent article about it, predating the FSF’s complaint which was announced at its site as follows:

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) and Free Software Foundation (FSF) have sent a joint position statement to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), urging it to scrutinize Novell’s proposal to sell patents to the newly-formed CPTN Holdings. Both organizations believe that CPTN Holdings may use these patents to attack free, libre, and open source (FLOSS) software. The full text of the statement follows.

Simon Phipps’ post was also aired in a Red hat site and the OSI’s announcement came from a Red Hat employee (both of them are in the OSI too). The main point to reiterate here is that CPTN may get more than it bargained for, depending on what AttachMSFT decides at a later date. UNIX too may be up for grabs, so something in this relationship needs to be derailed. Just about every single body/company with vested interests in Free/open source software wants CPTN to be starved or decommissioned. Coincidence? █

Summary: OIN cannot and would not sue, unlike Microsoft and its shells/pools; CPTN and AttachMSFT [sic] would be bad guardians for Novell’s virtual assets

THERE IS a new FUD/spin pattern and some news regarding CPTN [1, 2, 3, 4]. Owing to messages from Microsoft mobbyists, we realise that they currently try to spin OIN as an illegal thing. Now that Nexenta Systems joins the OIN [1, 2] which continues this amazing pace of over one joiner per week, it sure seems like there is stronger defence for Linux. And yes, OIN is defensive and unlike companies which claim their portfolios to be defensive, OIN has no shareholders and it cannot be sold. The latest announcement says:

Open Invention Network (OIN), the company formed to enable and protect Linux, today extended its community with the signing of Nexenta as a licensee. By becoming a licensee, Nexenta has joined the growing list of organizations that recognize the importance of leveraging the Open Invention Network to further spur open source innovation.

The mobbyists are trying to compare OIN to CPTN, which is of course laughable. The OSI has complained about CPTN and so has the FSFE in Europe (this one is the official statement). Meanwhile, at least two Microsoft/SCO boosters — Maureen O’Gara and Microsoft Florian — rave about the Microsoft patent cartel (CPTN) not being stopped by the European Commission. It should be added that trying to point a finger at OIN as total spin possibly means that they have something to conceal. It’s effective means of diversion.

IDG has just published this new report from CPTN, from which Groklaw quotes:

Additional details have emerged regarding the more than 800 patents Novell is selling to the Microsoft-led consortium CPTN Holdings for US$450 million, about two months after the deal was first announced.

[...]

While preparing to close the deal, Novell discovered that “19 of the patents to be sold to CPTN pursuant to the Patent Purchase Agreement are lapsed Australian, German or Austrian patent applications rather than issued Australian, German or Austrian patents.” Novell also found that one of the issued patents was referenced twice, it adds.

“As a result, if the patent sale occurs, CPTN would purchase 861 issued patents and pending patent applications and 20 lapsed patent applications,” the filing states.

CPTN has proposed that it be given additional issued patents and pending patent applications in Novell’s portfolio, in order to “unite certain patent families,” “compensate CPTN for the reduction in issued patents,” as well as other considerations. “Attachmate has informed us that they currently do not intend to consent to our changing the list of assigned patents under the Patent Purchase Agreement,” Novell said.

“Is this some kind of hustle,” Groklaw asks, “A Microsoft-organized consortium asks for Unix patents, which is what we heard Attachmate would get, and the answer is Attachmate won’t consent “currently”? Uh oh.” Groklaw later did a whole article about it, repeating some of the above:

The 882 patents turn out not to be 882 after all. There are only 861, and the Microsoft consortium would like some of Attachmate’s to make up for the few they’ve discovered don’t exist… Wait. What? Attachmate was to get only patents and copyrights associated with Novell’s UNIX and Linux businesses, right? Microsoft wants some of those? Like, um… some UNIX copyrights perchance? Novell says Attachmate won’t “currently” consent.

What about later? Is this some kind of hustle?

Yes, this is what we said about UNIX at AttachMSFT a long time ago, way back in November. █

Summary: The remaining assets of SCO are being sold (e.g. support for remnant of its customers) and the Novell case will resume shortly

The SCO case is not over just yet. This serves as a cautionary lesson regarding the litigation system (“legal system” sounds too good), which favours persistence and works quite well for lawyers (the longer the process, the more they will be paid).

Since we mentioned Groklaw in the previous post, it seems reasonable to mention its updates regarding SCO bills and SCO’s latest sale of business assets (said to have taken place 4 days):

SCO wants to have another auction. The first one was a fizzle, or so they seem to be indicating, even though at the hearing back in August on SCO’s desire to hold the first auction, they represented they had bidders lined up already. But no sale.

This isn’t just another way to delay until after the January 20th oral argument in SCO’s appeal of its loss to Novell, is it? Or avoid the inevitable discussion about defaulting on the Yarro loan, handing over the keys, and turning out the lights once and for all on SCO as we knew it? And what should us normal folks hope for in such a scenario as this?

That we knew The Rest of the Story of what’s going on behind the scenes, methinks.

The above gives away the date of January twentieth, which Groklaw is going to aim for and cover:

Synchronize your watches, and if you need to book a flight, now you know the day to arrange for. SCO is listed last for that day, but call the court if you plan to attend to verify closer to the date.

SCO is eternally in bankruptcy, as Groklaw helps show: “SCO has filed its monthly operating reports for October in the bankruptcy farce. Here are the September MORs, if you’d like to compare.”

Here is a new press release regarding a book with SCO vs. Novell in it:

Tenth Circuit’s The SCO Group, Inc. v. Novell, Inc.; Retirement Group v. Galante and Dowell v. Biosense Webster, Inc., from the California Court of Appeal

It will be interesting to see what AttachMSFT [sic] does regarding this whole case, which has cost Novell a lot of money (Novell really wants UNIX for itself). █