I awaken early as the sun plays brightly over my
face through the open window. I like sleeping with the window open, this time of
year — it lets the house breathe a little. And I like to see the breeze ruffle the
curtains. If there's a sweeter sight than white curtains dancing to birdsong against the clear blue sky of a
summer morning, I'd like to know what it is. Of
course, winters are pleasant too, here in Codeville. But that's an observation
for another day.
I start the coffee brewing and fetch today's edition of the Errant Pointer
from the front porch. Then I throw on some clothes, drag a razor across my
chin, and let the smell of fresh-brewed coffee lead me back to the kitchen. I
pull out my favorite mug the one that says "it's
going to change our lives, you know" on the side pour myself a big
cup of java, and sit down to read the paper.
The front page of today's Pointer is full of articles
from LinuxWorld,
the big open-source
conference and exposition that's going on in San
Francisco.
It's a funny thing about Linux.
A couple years ago, any article about Linux
would be full of news about start-up companies. You know, bands of idealistic
free-software dreamers suddenly shocked into corporate shareholderhood in the
wake of record-setting
IPOs. But now all the Linux news comes from old-economy companies like Sun
Microsystems, IBM,
SCO, and Novell.
It's almost as if the open
source revolution never happened.
SCO's Linux wars
The first item is about the big
fight between SCO Group and the Linux world. It's a complicated story that
reaches all the way back to AT&T Bell Labs and the creation of Unix in 1970.
Unix kicked around AT&T (and UC Berkeley but that's another story) for a
couple of decades, eventually finding a home at AT&T subsidiary Unix Systems
Laboratories. (For the fascinating full version of this story, visit the Bell
Labs History Web site.)
Novell purchased Unix Systems Laboratories and Unix in 1993.
Then in 1995 Novell sold its Unix business to the Santa Cruz Operation, which
had enjoyed years of success as a provider of commercial Unix systems.
Enter Caldera Systems, a Utah-based company started by Novell
founder Ray Noorda. Caldera was a big deal in the nascent Linux market and used
a chunk of its IPO money to purchase SCO's Unix and professional services
divisions. Caldera thus became a major player in both the Linux and the Unix
markets. In 2002, Caldera changed its name to SCO Group.
Last March, SCO Group declared war on Linux. The first shot was
fired at IBM in the form of a $1 billion lawsuit. SCO's lawyers charged that
IBM's Linux distributions included copyrighted SCO Unix source code. A couple
months later, the company sent threatening letters to large companies, warning
that they could be subject to legal liability if they continued to use Linux.
Leaders of the open-source movement wasted no time in condemning
SCO Group's actions.
SCO Group has demanded that IBM cease selling operating systems
that are based in part on unlicensed Unix source code, and the company has asked
the courts to enforce the demand by granting an injunction against IBM. SCO has
declined to renew a source code licensing agreement with IBM that expired in
June.
But according to Errant Pointer reports, SCO hasn't
managed to dampen IBM's enthusiasm for Linux. In fact, IBM seems to be cranking
up its Linux activities to higher levels (IBM
revs up Linux business).
Meanwhile, Linux vendor Red
Hat has filed a preemptive suit against SCO Group (Red
Hat files suit against SCO). Red Hat has asked the courts to declare that
its products are free of SCO Group encumbrance (press
release). SCO has threatened a countersuit (press
release).
SCO targets users
SCO Group's position is that every Linux distribution based on
the v. 2.4 and 2.5 kernels include SCO intellectual property. The inevitable
result of this belief is that anyone who acquired Linux from anyone other than
SCO must either pay a licensing fee to SCO or stop using Linux. Right?
SCO thinks so. That's why the company has created the SCO
Intellectual Property License. Under terms of this license, users who pay a
fee ranging from $199 (the promotional price for a desktop system) to $4,999
(for an eight-CPU server) can safely use Linux in binary form. (This license
does not include authorized access to source code.) This is many times the fee
charged by Linux distro companies, but SCO Group thinks it's reasonable. As the
company states on its Web site:
SCO has invested hundreds of millions in the development of UNIX
and is therefore entitled to a reasonable return on its investment. SCO believes
that major portions of the 2.4 and later versions of the Linux kernel are
unauthorized derivative works of SCO UNIX IP.
The implication here is that Linux users who fail to purchase
SCO Unix licenses are in violation of intellectual-property law, and subject to
lawsuits from SCO Group. Indeed, SCO has warned Linux shops that they may face
such suits.
You might expect all of this to put the brakes on Linux adoption
rates. But apparently not. Researchers at Evans Data have completed a study
suggesting that more than 70 percent of IT professionals "do not believe
that the
SCO lawsuit
will affect plans to deploy Linux-based technologies" (Study: Linux use undeterred by SCO suit).
Another man who isn't worried is Sun Microsystems CEO Scott
McNealy. Responding to a question about SCO's actions, McNealy told a reporter:
"I'm thrilled to death SCO can't revoke our Unix license. We can indemnify
our users, and if anybody's nervous about AIX or Linux, we've got Solaris on x86
and Solaris in the datacenter. We run like the wind. We're open. There are no
downsides" (McNealy:
Sun safe from SCO damage).
More news from LinuxWorld
I down the dregs of a second cup of coffee and scan the
rest of the headlines. Linux stories dominate the news section:
I'm about to flip to the sports page when I hear a beep beep
from the street. My car pool's here time for work.
I fold up the paper. I'll have to finish it later.
J.D.
Hildebrand has been an award-winning magazine editor, a self-taught programmer, and a mediocre
jazz musician. Today he serves as a senior consultant at Abacus Consulting, a New
York-based
editorial-training firm. J.D. has done a fair bit of
writing, including the Open
Source Watch column from SD Times, many contributions to the
Borland
Developer Network, and miscellaneous pieces (like this
one and this
one) that you can still find in the darker corners of the Internet, where no
one has swept up in a while. J.D.'s contributions to computer journalism seemed
important at the time. He edited Computer
Language, Portable
100,
Professional Computing, Epson World, Portable Computer, and Unix
Review. He
started Data General Micro World, Embedded Systems
Programming,
VAR, PC Companion, Laptop User, Windows Tech Journal, VB Tech Journal, Component
Builder, and Borland C++ Professional.
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