How the SCO lawsuit will affect Linux adoption
Tim Landgrave
Published: 15 Apr 2003 09:37 BST
But Sun and Microsoft do. For instance, after SCO filed the lawsuit, Sun responded quickly by telling its Solaris licensees that they had nothing to fear from any SCO action (of course, it made no public comment regarding its line of Linux servers). And any action that slows the Linux corporate incursion ultimately helps Microsoft. All Linux vendors, but primarily IBM, will benefit from the quick resolution of this case.
IBM's options
Although IBM claims that the allegations are baseless, it will be expensive and time-consuming to take this case to court. After attempting to get the suit thrown out in its entirety (which a judge will deny), IBM will have to decide whether to defend itself or find another option. I think IBM would be smart to do the latter. In fact, IBM (either by itself or with a consortium of other Unix licensees) should simply buy SCO and then either put the Unix technology into the public domain or license it to the general market under the same terms as the core Linux license.
By doing so, it would remove all doubt about the legality of core Unix utilities that have been ported to Linux. In addition, it would eliminate all licensing fees for all derivatives of Unix including Linux, making it more attractive for all companies to develop for or implement on Unix/Linux. An outright acquisition and public distribution of SCO's Unix rights would be the best thing for IBM and the Linux market. And it's probably the real reason SCO filed the lawsuit to begin with.
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