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 Why SCO decided to take IBM to court By David BeckerStaff Writer, CNET News.comJune 16, 2003, 4:00 AM PT newsmakers A few years ago, Caldera Systems was bobbing along as one of the last software companies to claim a piece of the Linux land rush, scoring a successful IPO that raised $70 million. Since then, Linux companies have gone through several rounds of grueling consolidation, and Caldera--now known as the SCO Group--has sworn off Linux. What's more, the company now finds itself a pariah in the same open-source software community it helped elevate to prominence. SCO's non grata status...

NEW YORK - Linux vendors are under attack. In March, IBM was sued for $1 billion by The SCO Group, of Lindon, Utah, which claims IBM has put SCO's Unix code into Linux, the open-source software program. SCO also has sent letters to 1,500 large companies warning them that if they are using Linux, they may face legal problems. Though IBM is the only company named in SCO's lawsuit, other Linux vendors, like Red Hat and SuSE Linux, could suffer collateral damage. Why You Won't Be Getting A Linux PC The Limitations Of LinuxBoies' Take On LinuxPeopleSoft Jumps On The...

SCO'S EXECUTIVES have been making some extremely wild claims and ridiculous veiled threats lately, even by their own, er... standards. SCO's really cranked up its volume of FUD generation recently, from its announced "termination" of IBM's AIX license (which IBM immediately denied and dismissed) to laughably grandiose ambitions to go after virtually every vendor of Unix based operating systems (excepting Sun, apparently) including possibly even Microsoft. ($10 Million doesn't buy very much SCO loyalty anymore, it seems.) It's almost as though SCO is screaming "All Your Code Belongs to Us" with respect to every Unix or Unix-like system developed since...

Boston -- Linux father Linus Torvalds is leaving microprocessor company Transmeta to work exclusively on Linux kernel development. On Tuesday, the Open Source Development Lab in Beaverton, Ore., announced that Torvalds will join that organization as the first OSDL fellow. In this role, Torvalds will devote himself full-time to the development of the kernel and guide thousands of open-source engineers that contribute code. He also will set priorities and direction for the OSDL's industry initiatives, the lab said. The OSDL, founded in 2000, is aimed to promote the growth of Linux and its adoption in the enterprise. The consortium is...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The creator of the Linux operating system is joining a global development group to focus on further improving the open-source software. Linus Torvalds said Tuesday he is taking a leave from his research job at chip-maker Transmeta Corp. He will become the first fellow at the Beaverton, Ore.-based Open Source Development Lab, which is funded by high-tech companies to, among other things, enhance Linux for corporate data centers. At the lab, he will focus on the next major revision of the Linux core, or kernel. "It feels a bit strange to finally officially work on...

<p>The SCO Group, which is suing IBM for $1 billion, on Monday terminated Big Blue's right to use or distribute its Unix-based AIX operating system.</p> <p>SCO on Monday said it was going to file an amendment to the complaint against IBM with the United States District Court of Utah, where the case is currently pending, for a permanent injunction requiring IBM to cease and desist all use and distribution of AIX and to destroy or return all copies of Unix System V source code.</p>

Another major hardware maker is likely to be added to SCO's legal battle against IBM and others over what it claims is illegally appropriated source code in Linux. In the meantime, Novell backs off copyright claims against SCO. The SCO Group Inc. has found what it says is proof that it owns all copyrights related to the Unix operating system, a claim rival Novell Inc. had contested last month and for which SCO may seek to recoup damages. Also, IBM said that it had no intention of reaching a quick settlement with the SCO Group, a small company based in...

Users and resellers of RAV AntiVirus, popular especially on Linux platforms, are in limbo after Microsoft Corp. announced plans to buy the RAV technology from Romania's GeCAD Software Srl. The RAV product line will be discontinued after Microsoft completes the acquisition of the technology, Microsoft said. GeCAD, which claims that its products protect more than 10 million users worldwide, will support current customers through the end of their contracts. The acquisition has observers questioning Microsoft's ultimate intentions and wondering what the software maker wants with technology that powers leading virus-scanning tools for e-mail servers on Linux platforms, rivals to Microsoft's...

SEATTLE (Reuters) - SCO Group Inc. SCOX.O , which claims International Business Machines Corp. IBM.N illegally used parts of its Unix software in other programs, said on Wednesday that it could revoke its license to the world's largest computer company unless they settled this week. Lindon, Utah-based SCO is suing IBM for more than $1 billion and warned 1,500 other companies last month that they may be violating SCO's intellectual property rights because parts of its Unix software code are being used in Linux. Unix is a widely-used operating system for networked computers that was first developed by AT&T Corp....

<p>Some members of the open-source community are claiming that the SCO Group may have violated the terms of the GNU GPL (General Public License) by incorporating source code from the Linux kernel into the Linux Kernel Personality feature found in SCO Unix without giving the changes back to the community or displaying copyright notices attributing the code to Linux.</p>

Some members of the open-source community are claiming that the SCO Group may have violated the terms of the GNU GPL (General Public License) by incorporating source code from the Linux kernel into the Linux Kernel Personality feature found in SCO Unix without giving the changes back to the community or displaying copyright notices attributing the code to Linux. A source close to SCO, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told eWEEK that parts of the Linux kernel code were copied into the Unix System V source tree by former or current SCO employees.

One of the first observers to see the evidence in the SCO Group Inc.'s intellectual-property claim against IBM and the Linux community says there are direct similarities between the Unix code that SCO claims control over and the Linux operating system. "My impression is that [SCO's claim] is credible," says Laura DiDio, a Yankee Group analyst who was shown the evidence by SCO Group earlier this week. "It appears to be the same" code. But DiDio says the developing battle could hinge on legal fine points that are hard to sort out in the current atmosphere of claims, denials, and...

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32872 Tuesday, June 3, 2003 BIZNETDAILY COMMENTARYBig blue Mormon penguinsUpdates on the Linux wars Posted: June 3, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Russ McGuire is the online director of Business Reform Magazine. Each issue of Business Reform features practical advice on operating successfully in business while glorifying God. By Russ McGuire © 2003 Business Reform Two months ago I told you about The SCO Group's lawsuit against IBM ( "If you can't beat 'em, sue"). Well, since then, it's gotten a lot messier....

Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer warned his staff in an e-mail Thursday that cheap Linux-based software is a growing threat to the software titan. He vowed to meet the challenge. "Over the long term, I'm optimistic about our growth opportunities. But we face significant challenges in the near and mid term," he said in the e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. "Non-commercial software products in general and Linux in particular, present a competitive challenge for us and for our entire industry, and they require our concentrated focus and attention," he said. Linux, a freely available operating...

Microsoft researchers endorse Linux clusters Knock us over with a feather By Egan Orion: Thursday 05 June 2003, 09:44 "The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it." Mark Twain TWO SENIOR RESEARCHERS at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center have endorsed Linux Beowulf clusters as the future of scientific computing. The pair, Gordon Bell and Jim Gray, casually mentioned this in passing during a presentation given at the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board meeting held last month at Stanford University. They were presenting a case...

It's been a torrid few weeks for the open-source movement, but good news came last week when the local government in Munich said it would spend about 30 million euros ($61 million) switching 14,000 computers from Microsoft's Windows and Office productivity software to the open-source Linux operating system and OpenOffice. The news was a huge blow to Microsoft, which is so worried about the Linux threat to its dominance that it has set up a special Linux fighting fund to provide super-discounts to win contracts from schools and Governments. The good news follows a bombshell legal claim that Linux was...

SCO Group, embroiled in a bitter legal dispute over Linux, indicated Friday it could take legal action against software maker Novell, and said it plans to release this week proprietary code that has been copied in the open source operating system. SCO chief executive Darl McBride told analysts and reporters in a teleconference that the company would release "hundreds of lines of code" that prove its claims. "The month of June is show-and-tell time," he said. "Everybody's been clamoring for the code -- show us two lines of code. We're not going to show two lines of code, we're going...

LOS ANGELES, May 30 (Reuters) - SCO Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOX), in a dispute with IBM and others over claims its intellectual property rights to the Unix operating system have been violated by competing software, on Friday said it will begin to open its code in a bid to show it has been improperly used. On a conference call with reporters and analysts, Darl McBride, the president and chief executive of Lindon, Utah-based SCO, said the company was willing to give proof to the technology industry and others that code from Unix appears in the Linux operating system as well. SCO...

It's really quite simple. If "techie" companies like Linux really want to bring down Microsoft's monopoly, they need to quit putting most of their energy into making "cool" software and focus on the four factors necessary to compete at Microsoft's level.Lawsuits by the government and competitors against Microsoft have failed to break down Microsoft’s monopoly within the software industry. This has just reinforced the free market argument that the real way to beat Microsoft is through competition. Unfortunately, most of Microsoft’s most promising competitors have failed to do the four things necessary to beat Microsoft – sell easier to use...

Microsoft Co-Opts Open Source On Its Terms May 26, 2003 SCO license deal highlights Microsoft's endorsement of for-profit development By John Foley, with Larry Greenemeier and Aaron Ricadela In the controversy that pits the SCO Group, owner of one of the original Unix operating systems, against Linux distributors, Microsoft has come down on the side of SCO. Yet, overlooked in the stir created when Microsoft recently licensed SCO's Unix for use in some of its products is the fact that Microsoft has been easing restrictions on its own code. May marks the second anniversary of Microsoft's so-called shared-source initiative,...