Pundits' Take on SCO/Novell Ruling Aug 13, 2007, 13 :00 UTC (8 Talkback[s]) (7345 reads)
24/7 Wall Street: The Future Of Linux Still Dark
"A federal judge ruled yesterday that Novell is the owner of the critical copyrights for the Unix operating system. Another company SCO Group had claimed these rights. As The New York Times writes: 'The ruling could remove the cloud over open-source software like Linux, an operating system loosely modeled on the proprietary Unix.' SCO had sued IBM (IBM) over intellectual property rights for Unix, and that suit will now have to be dropped.
"Two things will probably happen immediately. SCO shares, which traded at $4.25 in June 2006, and are at $1.50 now, may sell off to under $1. It is fair to ask if the company has any future now. The firm only has about $6 million in revenue each quarter and losses over $1 million on that..."
InformationWeek: Groklaw's Pamela Jones On The SCO Decision
"By now, everyone knows that the upcoming SCO vs. Novell trial is mostly moot, because Judge Dale Kimball has ruled that Novell owns the Unix copyrights. While the decision marks a welcome end to the three-year-long legal saga, it spotlights the wimpy nature of pundits and many in the computer industry, who cowered on the sidelines, fearful of recommending or adopting Linux while the litigation proceeded, lest SCO sue them, too.
"The most notable case in point was Gartner's 2003 recommendation that companies delay or take a go-slow approach to Linux 'until the merits of SCO's claims or any resulting judgments become clear...'"
"At long last, the SCO Group's ugly, often farcical legal crusade against Linux appears to be over.
"SCO has spent four and a half years arguing that it owns the copyrights to Unix, and that the free Linux operating system includes code stolen from Unix..."
