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SCO... Shame on you.
Author: HumanX | Monday September 08, 2003
SCO it seems may be setting its sites on SGI over the Open XFS journaling file system.
An opinion column.
As I have said before and I will say again, I am for both open and closed source software. Closed source software has shaped economies of the world and has made many a people quite happy. And open source through its generous givings has made many a people who could not compete in the past able to compete today, open source has united people in common efforts, open source in some ways is symbolic of the lives I think people want to live. Peacefully and through sharing.
Each has its merits; each has its right to exist. I do not believe open source will overtake closed source and vice versa. I believe they can coexist. Why? Because their will always be those people who are dentists, secretaries, ceo's, home users and so forth who specialize in their field and not in the computer field. Those will be the people who will be comfortable with closed source and the security of support.
What does this article have to do with SGI. SCO may set its *sites on SGI over the OPEN XFS file system. *(http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5072061.html?tag=fd_top)
From one perspective I understand the desires of SCO to expect recuperation for its operating system. Because I believe in closed source, I therefore believe in the rights of the developer.
But in my opinion, SCO has chosen a path of pure corporate, viscous underhandedness. Their are companies or people out their who release idea's with the expectation of theft and then seek to penalize those who have fallen into the trap. This is not to say anything in Linux is stolen, quite the contrary.
The point being, is if unaltered code does exist within Linux which I believe to be purely incidental or an unthinking motion by some desperate developer who needed to accomplish some task., then SCO deserves payment if IBM were the culperite behind this move.
Now. Is some code worth 1 Billion dollars? SCO acts as if the code in question destroyed their company and they can no longer compete. Not only that, I do believe SCO has known for some time and has planned for just the right moment to unleash its fury. A time when this fury could be most tragic.
Because of this, I also believe SCO will lose the battle. They lose either way because if they win, the anger towards the company will be so wide spread that know one will purchase their software again. An for the same reason, if they lose that same anger will destroy the company.
SCO in my opinion has effectively stabbed 1500 of its customers in the back and I think SCO has turned its back on the computing world. So shame on SCO. Shame on SCO because in my opinion it is not about software, or what they own, what it means or if they belong on some moral high ground.
If you were to look at the situation and see that for SCO this is a lose-lose situation as far as SCO as a company is concerned you will see that they do not care. They want the money and that is it. Would you ever personally purchase an SCO product after knowing they attacked 1500 of their customers? I know I would not.
Any judge reviewing this case should throw it in the trash. SCO is not fighting for the good of man, the right of business, they are fighting for the oh mighty dollar. And if they win, they disappear but leave possibly billions of people wandering through the rubble.
SCO released its code and its code ended up in Linux. What did they expect would happen? Every book, every magazine and every newspaper at some point in time has a portion of its writings copied in one form or another.
If a small portion of SCO has been used I think it should be expected. If Linux was a 90% duplication of SCO then their would be a problem, but it is not. It might be .001%
What SCO is asking is ridiculous and their efforts should be rewarded the same way we reward any other bully. Never interact with them again.
HumanX
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