Fat Man and Little Boy

A decent article has just been published by Heise and you can view it right here. To quote just a fragment:

SCO vs. Linux – mixed reactions to Novell Unix copyright verdict

[...]

From hackers to financial analysts, the question of what happens next is occupying the minds of many in the IT industry – not all of them as well-informed as Pamela Jones, the good fairy behind Groklaw, a website which follows such cases. She has told Infoworld that Microsoft will be the next SCO Group; the company has been loudly rattling its patent sabres, claiming earlier this year that Linux violated mote than 235 Microsoft patents. Whether Microsoft goes beyond mere sabre rattling and whether SCO manages anything more than a last gasp is also a question of how you evaluate the course of court proceedings so far.

It ought to be re-emphasised that Novell has the potential to carry on SCO's job. The company denied that it will ever do so, but call us cynical... the same representative who said this, namely Bruce Lowry, quit the company not so long ago. He didn't seem too pleased because he actually cared about and advocated the use of ODF. He was the company's PR director. No more, no less.

If you think that's bad, consider the fact that Joseph LaSala left the company as well. Those who have followed the SCO case would know this person's admirable role in it. One has to wonder who will (or already has) replace these two chaps. We have witnessed more than a single 'plant job' in the past and we watch Novell very closely for that reason, Saturday's tedious postings being evidence of this.

“Novell is hiring .NET programmers, as we showed more than a year ago. It actually strategises on it.”Who might Microsoft put inside Novell, if anyone at all? Novell's sympathy towards Microsoft could definitely attract candidates who share similar feelings. Novell is hiring .NET programmers, as we showed more than a year ago. It actually strategises on it.

Could Novell's healthy sentiments for Microsoft have negative impacts? Senior managers would humbly tell you that this is just a normal business strategy. I happen to have had a long conversation about this at the gym last week (with a person who has managed several companies). Ignoring the possibility seems a tad risky.

At the moment, the worst one can do is give Microsoft ammunition, such as Microsoft's .NET framework (or equivalent) deep inside GNU/Linux, with pragmatic and technical dependencies on it. Only Novell would benefit from this in the long term. It literally owns Mono. Remember the copyrights for example.

There is also a more philosophical aspect to all of this. The moment a suggestion of assimilation is taken into consideration and then embraced, there is danger. If GNU/Linux adopts the same rotten habits which it tries to combat, that's the moment this fight for change become self-defeating. Why fight fire with fire? Or struggle with vapourware? Or deception? Or shill 'studies'? Why fight with .NET? Or as Matt Hartley sarcastically put it at the time:

Linux to Microsoft: Let's Fight with Silverlight

Never try to make GNU/Linux a better Windows than Microsoft Windows. You are bound to lose on technical merits and -- more importantly -- you could get sued. ⬆

"When Windows NT was announced several years ago, Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman, called it a better Unix than Unix."

--Source

Related readings:

• The Goldfarb Declaration

According to the Declaration, Richard Emerson was not the only Microsoft employee Goldfarb was dealing with in connection with the BayStar investment in SCO. He mentions by name two others, from two other departments.

• Halloween Documents

There you have it. At least a third of SCO's entire market capitalization, and their entire current cash reserves, is payoffs funnelled from Microsoft. Their 10Qs reveal that every other line of cash inflow is statistical noise by comparison. The brave new SCO source business model is now clear: sue your customers, shill for Microsoft, kite your stock, and pray you stay out of jail.