bloodline wrote:
M$ buying a licence is effectivly a legitmate (and very underhand dirty) way to support SCO while they try and destroy Linux, but not look like M$ are so scared of Linux they are prepared to pay to have it removed...
It's important to remember that Microsoft *did* have a long-running relationship with the original Santa Cruz Operation. See, there was this little product called Xenix...
This and
this might come in handy.
This reference from the latter provides some background from the TRS camp.
Microsoft had a good interest in SCO (12-18% of stock?) when SCO actually existed. Some searching (mostly on The Reg/The Inquirer) can turn up the chain of events that had Microsoft pull out and Caldera acquiremergebecome.
Now, one has to wonder what the current involvement is about. It could be that the SCO code involved really is a 'time bomb' sitting in a lot of projects- though who knows what it'd have to be to be such. It could be something trivial, which Microsoft would rather license than rewrite for legitimizing purpose. Or, it could be something so *immensely* trivial that "um, this code is used all over Windows- and in every other x86 OS built" would destroy the case (let's say the IBM defense subpoenas a Microsoft developer- "Hey, do you guys use printf()? Did you pay SCO a license for those 6 characters?" Now, he can respond "Why yes, we did.")...
If it's that last case- the code is as ridiculous, and as ridiculously common as we all expect- that's one hell of a gambit. Extrapolated ad absurdum (up to the Supreme Court, or refusal thereby), at its worst, Microsoft could potentially use SCO as a pawn to lock out *anyone* without $N million for an SCO license from the majority of the US software market, until the world could regroup around it. They don't have to achieve that level of success to do serious damage, of course- just drag on the process as long as possible (especially if they can wrangle success in Round 1), and let FUD do its work. If it doesn't work- hey, it was worth a shot, and what's a few million here and there?
Astounding.
But now, after that doomsday scenario, consider another thing- this is a test case against IBM in specific. IBM is wonderfully schizophrenic organizationally, with the Linux group off doing their thing, while the personal systems division continues to license mass quantities of MS software. So let's say, after all this suing concludes, Microsoft sales gives a ring to some suit up the IBM chain who's been isolated from the details of the battle. "Oh, honey, I didn't mean to hurt you like that... Here, let's sign this and make it all better.." Y'know, the contract that, say, gives IBM use of MS's SCO license in exchange for a 'small' royalty on every box sold (whether or not it contains SCO code), or something along those usual lines. Maybe if they agree to keep it on the mainframe, y'know, not on those desktops, where the user really needs a consistent XPerience...
Boggles the mind.
