What Did Microsoft Know About SCO’s Plans and When Did It Know It?

“What did Microsoft know about SCO’s plan to attack Linux, and
when did it know it? And was it a force behind it?

“We’ve long wondered.

“Certainly there have been indications that it was. Michael
Anderer’s leaked memo in 2003 certainly claimed Microsoft had been
funneling money to SCO, but SCO said he was mistaken. Was he? He
later also said that Microsoft had a patent plan to destroy Linux
or force them to pay for licenses, but that’s another chapter. Was
he wrong about that? And when BayStar funded SCO in 2004, it was
reported that Microsoft had asked BayStar in 2003 to do it, which
Lawrence Goldfarb later confirmed in a Declaration submitted by IBM
in the SCO v. IBM litigation, despite Microsoft’s denial. But it
was still a little bit he said, she said, although all the
available evidence was strong that Microsoft’s carefully worded
denial was not, shall we say, the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth.

“But now, thanks to a volunteer working on doing the exhibits in
the Comes v. Microsoft antitrust litigation as text, we find an
email thread in Exhibit 8953 [PDF] where Microsoft employees,
including the managing director of Microsoft in India at the time,
mention SCO in a discussion about heading off the Linux threat in
India.”

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