HP shells out for SCO road show

Starting Oct. 7, SCO users throughout the U.S. and Canada will have a chance to express their appreciation for the company's intellectual property defense program in an up-close, personal setting.

The SCO City-to-City Tour kicks off in Toronto on Oct. 7 and then snakes its way through the U.S., ending up in Orlando, Florida on Oct. 29. Users who sign up for the get together will hear "messages, news, and product information" that are vital to running a successful SCO operation. One of the more compelling sessions will no doubt be the 9:15 am "Company Report Card" in which SCO officials rate their own performance.

For those not paying attention, SCO is the company locked in lawsuits with IBM and Red Hat over ownership rights to bits of code in Linux. SCO wants users to cough up $1,400 per processor to use the Linux OS, while Linux users want the company to return to the rather boring hole from where it came.

The SCO City-to-City Tour is a nice touch to the whole IP affair. It gives the impression that SCO still has a vibrant, diverse user base that is clamoring for the latest details on SCO software. While there are plenty of SCO users out there, the need for a company-backed outreach program is quite slim. That might be why per city registration is capped off at 50 customers. Wouldn't it be funny if ambitious Linux users filled all of those spots?

Just last week, HP jumped ahead of IBM and Dell to say that it would protect users from SCO's wrath should they face a court battle over their Linux use. HP will foot the bill for any server and workstation customers that agree to use unmodified versions of Linux and that sign a somewhat restrictive contract.

HP garnered a fair amount of attention for this stance even though it's a bit weak on substance. The HP legal staff must figure that SCO is not likely to win out in court, so why not go ahead and put on the brave act now.

But doesn't it send a bit of a mixed message to take shots at SCO's IP crusade while backing the City-to-City tour? Yes, there are plenty of HP and Compaq customers running SCO software, but taking on the sponsorship makes one wonder how much of a friend to Linux HP really is.

Users attending the City-to-City tour are urged to figure out exactly what HP's SCO stance is. We certainly can't tell. ®

SCO management seems to believe that acquiring publicity, whether good or bad, will somehow magically turn their failing company into something else.

Between the lawsuits, the Las Vegas extravaganza, and now a 'road show,' SCO seems to be turning over all the rocks a little company tries to turn over to gain some attention for itself in the absence of a real advertising budget.

Still, what they are doing amounts to advertising, and they seem to be spending a fair amount on it for the size of company they are.

By all accounts, however, they have a crappy product, where "crappy" means it has gotten a little stale over the years, hasn't kept up with the technology, and is chiefly used by a dwindling base of long-time resellers... yer basic has-been company in its twilight.

I know, because I peeked, that it is not possible to advertise your way out of a truly crappy product. In fact spending a lot of money to promote a product that truly sucks is widely known to be among the worst possible business strategies. So in addition to getting themselves sued to death, these guys seem determined to simultaneously execute a well-known Bad Business Strategy.

The business schools will be writing about this case for years. So will the psychiatric hospitals. Say this for SCO... they are going out with a bang.

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