Free Republic

Munich Linux setback By Jan Libbenga Posted: 15/01/2004 at 09:50 GMT Last year, the city of Munich, Germany opted to go with Linux instead of Microsoft software on more than 14,000 desktop computers. This was seen as a significant setback for Microsoft and a clear sign of Linux' increasing viability. But now the project is in trouble, according to Computerwoche. This Spring, Munich needs to finish a migration plan as well as present a budget for the project. But according to Computerwoche there is not enough money and technical difficulties may result in stalling of the LiMux Project. In particular,...

Today Linux, Tomorrow the World? By James V. DeLong The term "open source" is linked with software, and most particularly with Linux, the operating system which, it is hoped or feared, can challenge both Microsoft's position on the desktop and its ambitions to extend its empire into server space. The theory is that Linux and other open source programs are written by hordes of volunteers, each contributing his/her widow's mite of code, communicating at zero cost over the Internet, and self-organizing their efforts without need for either the incentives of markets or the commands of organizational hierarchies. The proof that...

The SCO Group Inc. has taken its fight with the Linux community to Capitol Hill. Earlier this month, the company sent the 535 members of the U.S. Congress a letter that called Linux and open source software a threat to the security and economy of the U.S., SCO confirmed on Thursday The letter is dated Jan. 8 and was published on the Internet this week by an open source lobbying organization called the Open Source and Industry Alliance (OSAIA). It states that the commoditizing influence of open source software such as the Linux operating system is bad for the U.S....

The modern PC is a marvel of technology. One of its more useful capabilities is the ability to use the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive as a boot disk. Many Linux distros use this feature to launch their installers, but if you can boot off the CD, why can't you run off the CD? In fact, you can. The cool thing about all this is that you don't have to install anything on your computer. In our other articles this week, we've looked at distros that had to be installed to your hard disk before you could use them. But that's...

The Most Hated Company In Tech SCO's huge Linux suit against IBM is a long shot that may yield nothing but bile He can't say he wasn't warned. In June, 2002, when Darl McBride was getting ready to take over as chief executive at struggling Caldera International Inc. in Lindon, Utah -- later renamed SCO Group Inc. -- he mused that claiming ownership of some of the underlying code in the popular Linux computer operating system could keep the company afloat. Even though Caldera's revenues were declining, it was losing $5 million per quarter, and its stock had slid below...

A fast-spreading mass-mailing virus has emerged as an unlikely weapon in the ongoing 'Linux War' between the SCO Group (Quote, Chart) and the open-source community. Anti-virus experts have increased the threat level on the W32.Novarg.A@mm (MyDoom) virus, which is spreading like wildfire through e-mail in-boxes worldwide and is programmed to launch a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack against the SCO home page. "This one is pretty bad. It's widespread and it only looks to be increasing," said Chris Belthoff, a senior security analyst at Sophos, Inc. "This takes the Linux Wars to a new intensity. It appears that the author...

Linux delivers for U.S. Postal Service Linux-based scanning machines speed mail sorting in 250 facilities.By Phil HochmuthNetwork World, 01/19/04 While many businesses are just now turning to Linux as a server platform, the technology has delivered for the U.S. Postal Service for several years.The Postal Service has used penguin power since 1999 to streamline the "snail mail" process. More than 900 Linux machines currently sort in excess of 670 million pieces of mail per day in the Postal Service's 250 mail-sorting sites around the country."Linux has been working well for us for some time now," says Jasbir Sandhu, electronics engineer at for the USPS, who...

Linux has long been the darling of highly-skilled programmers. But now, the program is going mainstream, reports technology correspondent Clark Boyd.Major global computer companies are now embracing Linux. IBM, for one, is currently running a series of television and online ads proclaiming that the future is open, as in open source computing. They have even enlisted author Kurt Vonnegut to help promote the open source ideal of sharing your computer code with others. It is a far cry from the days when the only people who knew about Linux were a small community of zealous enthusiasts. The interest from big...

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SCO abandons trade secret attack on IBM By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco Posted: 07/02/2004 at 03:14 GMT The SCO Group abandoned a major rationale of its case against IBM by dropping its trade secret claims. These were the basis, last June, for SCO revoking IBM's UNIX license. IBM didn't blink, and has simply carried on selling its AIX Unix without blinking. But today SCO dropped the trade secrets and claimed breach of copyright instead. But such claims need proof, and it proved to be another hearing in which the SCO Group vs. IBM without the Utah company showing any...

Industry watcher Rob Enderle no longer responds to angry e-mails from Linux supporters. The principal analyst for the Enderle Group (San Jose, Calif.) says he replied to the first thousand or so. But after that, the anger and profanities that many of the missives contained began to wear on him. "I've been threatened and other analysts have been threatened, as well," Enderle said. "Some of the e-mail is incredibly vile, and it just doesn't seem worth it to respond anymore. The senders view a response as a license to write again, in even greater detail." Enderle's experience is part of...

U.N. report says open source produces better software The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has made available an Internet edition of its E-Commerce and Development Report 2003, which features Free and open-source software: Implications for ICT policy and development as a chapter. The report, like many open source advocates, proposes that the open source process produces better software. It argues that open source development's division of labor is more efficient than that of proprietary coders. The report says that OSS software is better for four primary reasons: More people looking for defects means more defects are found and...

<p>Why is the Free Software Foundation given a pass on the issue of contract enforcement under state law on binding legal agreements like the GPL? The consequences are dramatic indeed for the commercial enterprise environment.</p> <p>When the Free Software Foundation speaks of unilateral permissions or bare license law enforcing the GPL, they are referring to a long line of case law concerning patents that was summarized by the Supreme Court in General Talking Pictures Corp v Western Electric Co, Inc., 305 US 124,125.</p>

This is an article at Groklaw on the financial outlook for SCO done by Decatur Jones' Dion Cornette. The article at Groklaw has links to the PDF, and I have taken the text from Groklaw along with Pamela Jones introductory commentary. ++++++++++++++ Decatur Jones' Dion Cornett on SCO Friday, January 30 2004 @ 07:34 AM EST Here is the PDF of Dion Cornett's January 13 report on SCO. As you will see, the OSDL legal defense fund, the Novell indemnification, and the Open Source Risk Management vendor-neutral indemnification program seem to him meaningful events, which he believes make it unlikely...

SCO's suit not all that simple By Bob Mims The Salt Lake Tribune     U.S. Magistrate Brooke Wells met for nearly 30 minutes in chambers Friday with attorneys for Utah's SCO Group and IBM, hoping to keep their open-court debate simple and to the point.     But when arguments ended shortly before noon, nearly 90 minutes later, Wells acknowledged she would need time to unravel competing motions related to SCO's claims that its proprietary Unix operating system was illegally incorporated into the Linux OS.     Noting the "complicated" nature of the issues, Wells told her tiny, standing-room-only courtroom that...

Now They Own It, Now They Don’t: SCO Sues Novell to Stay Afloat ~ Eben Moglen February 5, 2004 The SCO licensing campaign—which has been all bark and no bite since its introduction by way of threatening letters to the Fortune 1500 last summer—lost a wheel last month, and is now headed for the wall. From the beginning of this irresponsible attack on the freedom of free software, SCO has promulgated public positions about the nature of its supposed rights that conflicted with facts known to the free software community, and relied upon legal positions that were untenable given the...

News.com is reporting that Novell has filed a motion to dismiss, on the grounds that SCO hasn't proven that Novell doesn't own the copyrights and thus SCO can't establish that it owns Unix and UnixWare copyrights. The motion also seeks dismissal on the grounds that the allegations don't establish specific grounds for damages. "They are precisely the type of general allegations of some speculative injury that the special damages pleading requirements for a slander of title action are meant to avoid." SCO released a statement from whatever cave they have been hiding in all week. Here is a snip from...

Novell says waiver cancels SCO's claims on Linux By Bob Mims The Salt Lake Tribune     Novell Inc., claiming it sold only limited rights to the Unix operating system in 1995, has issued a waiver it says negates the SCO Group's claims on the offshoot, freely distributed Linux operating system.     Claiming the purchase excluded control of "derivative works," or improvements to the program's code by independent developers, Novell had given SCO until noon Wednesday to retract its claim that Unix code was illegally imported into Linux.     That allegation is at the heart of SCO's federal lawsuit against...

The recipe for Coca-Cola is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the world. Yet a small Canadian software firm has sold 150,000 cans of a rival fizzy cola, which tastes very like Coke, and has made the recipe public. The firm behind the drink, Opencola, makes software, not drinks. It used the drink (and its open recipe) as a metaphor for the most important trend in software today. Unlike most traditional software firms, Opencola produces open source technologies. Open source is a philosophy for software licensing designed to encourage the improvement and use of software by anyone who...

EXCLUSIVE BetaNews has learned that Thursday's leak of the Windows 2000 source code originated not from Microsoft, but from long-time Redmond partner Mainsoft. The leaked code includes 30,915 files and was apparently removed from a Linux computer used by Mainsoft for development purposes. Dated July 25, 2000, the source code represents Windows 2000 Service Pack 1. Analysis indicates files within the leaked archive are only a subset of the Windows source code, which was licensed to Mainsoft for use in the company's MainWin product. MainWin utilizes the source to create native Unix versions of Windows applications. Mainsoft says it has...