Is Microsoft Behind SCO's $50 Million Cash Infusion?

eWeek ^ | October 17, 2003 | Peter Galli

[glorgau]

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - it's a duck.

[clee1]

What would Microsoft want with a dog like SCO anyway?

[SteveH]

spooky... (sco/linux/microsux ping)

[glorgau]

They just want to keep the lawsuits and the FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) going. For MS $50 million is like tossing a nickel their way.

[rdb3]

The Penguin Ping.

Wanna be Penguified? Just holla!

Got root?

[clee1]

True....

I am a Unix admin.... I use Win98 as my home machine (games, surfing, word processing). Linux has to have Prince William (Gates) messing up his underware.
As soon as a) Word is ported to Linux, or b) An equal quality wordprocessor in written for Linux, I am so gone from MS products.

[I_dmc]

MS either buys and absorbs a competitor or destroys it. Thats how they do business. Hint is, Linux is a competitor, with the big dog being IBM. Which is rather comical, actually. An offhand example is the saga of the Sega Dreamcast.

[I_dmc]

Have you tried Star Office or Open Office?

[clee1]

Sure... I buy that. That's just business

The point here is an investment in SCO. SCO???????

SCO was ALWAYS as pi$$-poor product. It is certainly no competition to MS. And IBM deserves whatever it gets. They could have crushed Gates, a long haired, dirty MIT dropout, as easily as crushing a bug. Instead, they fed a monster and now we all pay the price. Blaster anyone?

[clee1]

I have tried Star Office and it is close... really close. I'll try it again after another couple of revisions.

Haven't tried Open yet. Is it any good?

[ThePythonicCow]

The rabid dog SCO is trying to byte the Linux penguin; that's why Microsoft is feeding the dog.

[clee1]

Ahhhhhhhh! Now I see the point. It can't possibly work, but I do see your point.

That rabid ole SCO-dog is just a toothless saggy-skinned porch-hound now. No way - NO WAY - can it take on Linux.

SCO and Novell - the only things keeping either alive is a huge base of schools, hospitals, and insurance companies. The invested in the wrong technologies years ago and don't have the $$$ to scrap that crap and start over from scratch.

[ThePythonicCow]

It can't possibly work,

True. The dog will die, and the penguin will live.

But from Microsoft's perspective, they may well see a good return on their investment, if this SCO FUD gives a few Corporate Vice Presidents the excuse they were looking for anyway to hold off moving more agressively toward Linux.

Microsoft is good at trench warfare.

[clee1]

The major flaw in all that thinking is that the major IT server vendors are starting to phase out their proprietary unices in favor of Linux; HP, IBM, and Sun have ALL announced their intentions to support the open source Linux rather than maintain their own code. It is just a matter of time before those same Corporate bean-counting types will realize that it saves them money to convert to freeware.

MS is a bigboy, but this is a fight it just won't win.

[ThePythonicCow]

I'm not saying Microsoft wins the war.

On the other hand, big companies don't usually just die, at least not quickly. Their size ebbs and flows, but they have far too many sources of serious revenue to just dry up and blow away.

I'm saying that Microsoft may well make more money on it's support of SCO than it spent.

I agree with you that the advantage is toward Linux, away from Microsoft, in quite a few ways now.

But I don't agree with you (if this is what you are suggesting) that just because SCO's moves aren't going to destroy Linux, therefore this is a loosing investment for Microsoft. Nor would I agree that just because Linux is making some gains on Microsoft, therefore Microsoft will be totally defeated.

[clee1]

OK... I have to agree there.

True, the $50 mill is chickenfeed to MS, and it may well be that it is a good investment, as long as MS doesn't try to use their codebase - that would be akin to sticking your... member .... into a hornets nest.

If it buys a years delay in adoption of linux by SCO's existing customers, that probably will accrue to MS's benefit eventually.

MS will never be totally defeated. There will always be marginally-computer-literate people out there that will require MS's hand-holding; even to the point of dealing with MS's constantly flawed products. Linux will eventually, IMHO, take all of the data center business that MS database, backup, and management products now occupy; as well as the "power" user community.

[clee1]

OK... I have to agree there.

True, the $50 mill is chickenfeed to MS, and it may well be that it is a good investment, as long as MS doesn't try to use their codebase - that would be akin to sticking your... member .... into a hornets nest.

If it buys a years delay in adoption of linux by SCO's existing customers, that probably will accrue to MS's benefit eventually.

MS will never be totally defeated. There will always be marginally-computer-literate people out there that will require MS's hand-holding; even to the point of dealing with MS's constantly flawed products. Linux will eventually, IMHO, take all of the data center business that MS database, backup, and management products now occupy; as well as the "power" user community.

[ThePythonicCow]

Yes - I'd agree with all you said there.

[wiseone]

you can view word docs, excel etc by using Xandros Linux -codeweaver plug in


if you remember MSHaft bought into apple and Corel to infiltrate the threat

[isthisnickcool]