On the other hand, I can almost see some people who worship Microsoft, so maybe that last part is true.
Do not presume to know what I look like. You don't know me. And if you are going to characterize my comments, you might be more specific than to say they are cultish. If I characterized everything you wrote as "lame" it doesn't serve a discussion very well.
"They even have an Idol, the penguin."
And this "Rock n Roll" music the kids have started to listen to leads to immoral dancing and kissing!
You can't be serious. I doubt there's anyone out there "worshiping" the tux logo, any more than Microsoft types idolize the Windows logo.
On the other hand, I can almost see some people who worship Microsoft, so maybe that last part is true.
"Lets learn a little about operating systems. Unix/Linux is not a "kernel". It is all the utilities, many with cute names such as awk, and grep, and sed and..."
If you're going to try to cast yourself as my teacher, you'd better get your ducks in a row. Linux IS just a kernel. That's all. Linus Torvolds has not contributed code to any of the utils you mentioned. All of the is part of the GNU Project, headed by Richard Stallman.
You would have made a better point by saying Linux is of no value by itself, that it must be married to these other components to form an operating system. But that's not what you said.
"Unix/Linux is not a "kernel"
Don't confuse Unix with Linux. They are not the same thing.
"Some years ago I led a team of programmers several of whom were fresh out of school, and thus comfortable with Unix. I purchased "Unix", Berkeley 4.2 in this case..."
Do not confuse BSD with Unix. They are not the same thing. What you refer to would be commonly known as BSD 4.2(Berkeley Software Distribution). "Berkeley Unix" is less common, but still not incorrect. Not the same as Unix Sys V.
"We had to pay a Berkeley Unix license fee, though the kernel was VMS. "
I'm at a loss to understand why you paid a license fee, or why is matters to the discussion at hand. But in any case, both of those codebases are open source. Perhaps VMS wasn't at the time. It's more likely you were paying a license to AT&T, because BSD at one point contained AT&T code.
"I'm not sure Linus has done much different. He copied the functionality of a decade old operating system."
Which still is not the same as copying code from Minix. And that is the discussion. AdTI said Linus must have copied code from Minix. And that has turned out to be such a blatent lie that even Microsoft wants to put some distance from the whole thing. I think Linus could sue some major ass.
"We'll see what the courts do, but SCO has a pretty good case, in my opinion."
Don't bet on it.
"Meanwhile the court's treatment of software patents should interest all developers."
SCO has not raised the issue of software patents. SCO is primarily focused on copyright infrigement and contract violation.
IBM has filed a countersuit against SCO that accuses them of violating 4 IBM patents. The suit names every SCO software product. If you want to see some patent fireworks, that's where it's at. You only get to see that fight if SCO lives long enough, which isn't looking good.
On the other hand, I can almost see some people who worship Microsoft, so maybe that last part is true.
Then you need a better way to distinguish the complete packages sold by Red Hat etc. If they are not "Linux", then they need to be formally referred to at all times as "GNU/Linux", "GPL Unix", "Foreign Crap Unix", or whatever else you want to call it besides "Linux". But right now, to most people, when they install a complete Red Hat CD, they are installing "Linux". So, what name do you suggest that you will now be using from now on?