08.10.07
Groklaw: SCO is Toast, Novell owns Unix Copyrights
Head on over to Groklaw for the scoop and detailed analysis, but the short of it is that Judge Kimball has issued a ruling on some of the summary judgments in SCO v Novell, and it is not good if you are a fan of SCO:
Hot off the presses: Judge Dale Kimball has issued a 102-page ruling [PDF] on the numerous summary judgment motions in SCO v. Novell. Here is what matters most:
[T]he court concludes that Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare Copyrights.
That’s Aaaaall, Folks! The court also ruled that “SCO is obligated to recognize Novell’s waiver of SCO’s claims against IBM and Sequent”. That’s the ball game. There are a couple of loose ends, but the big picture is, SCO lost. Oh, and it owes Novell a lot of money from the Microsoft and Sun licenses.
Of course, we all know that the writing has been on the wall for SCO for some time, that’s why Microsoft took to selling their Linux Right-to-Use Patent Licenses directly - and to more people than just Sun.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 10, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Groklaw has been brought down to its knees by the huge level of interest in this article.
shane coyle said,
August 11, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Huh, you’d think they’d be able to handle the load since IBM was propping them up this whole time with their deep pockets.
(that is a joke, SCO made that claim at one point because Groklaw is/was hosted on Ibiblio which is supported by IBM, so laugh.)
I Love Novell said,
August 11, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Thanks for the laughs, this is my first time polluting my desktop with the drivel you two spout out…You sound like a pair of religious fanatics similar in thread to the fanatical Muslims who would kill there own rather than co-exist with a difference in opinion or belief. When this all boils out and Novell is found to be a righteous player in the FOSS community ( a place I already give it) how red (Novell Red) will your faces be? Seriously , If Novell were under MS control why not topple it the day after assuming the ability? Linspire seems to be going that way according to you. No the reality is Ron (my personal hero) is finally bringing Novell back from the dead, he is making the company provide solutions to co-exist with the sleeping giant rather than poke it in the ass with a hot stick, like most of the OSS community does. Did neither of you take or pass world history,remember WWII ? Now that Novell owns both a Linux company and Unix it can start dictating to MS what it wants in order to allow MS to live through the incoming tide of enterprise ready OSS based on what eventually will be the combining of the two. There needs to be a place in the world for all those C# people to work when MS is half its current size. So what if Novell wants to back engineer a “patented” technology like .Net with MONO, good for it, SAMBA hasn’t hurt Linux any has it? There is only one reason Novell is paying anything to MS, it’s simply to let MS save face. MS has AIDS , it can take all the meds it needs to stave off the inevitable, but in the end some complication due to the fact that MS contracted the disease will in the end kill it. You should really change this sites name to:
“boycottintelligentchoices.com”
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 11, 2007 at 8:18 pm
@ “I Love Novell”: Read the about page. Making religious or political comparisons would lead you nowhere. Novell bent Microsoft’s way. The deal gave Microsoft more control, not less. What’s worse is Novell’s damage to whoever surrounds it, including itself.
Dev Null said,
August 22, 2007 at 6:24 pm
What is the damage? Please don’t spew crap just because you hate Novell. You sound more like a total moron, even with your PhD seeking efforts. Novell opened the way for big companies to allow Linux in their datacenters. The Linux community needed the foot in the door. We all know, MS wasn’t going to sue anyone, Novell knew that, it simply allowed MS to safe face. Again, Novell paid $40 mil to MS, and MS paid $340 mil to Novell, use your PhD seeking experience to figure that one out. Let’s stop the Jihad Stallman philosophy, it’s really a bunch of crap. A simple example of what I’m saying is what Linux Torvalds says about GPL v3, it’s BS. read his comments here: http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0706.2/index.html#2071