SCO: Stuff and nonsense

By Gary Barnett, Research Director

SCO has decided to “turn the tables” on IBM and the Linux community by asserting on one hand that IBM has deliberately set out to destroy it, and on the other that Linux contains significant portions of code that belongs to it. As things unfold, and SCO unravels, I doubt that SCO will achieve the results that it is looking for and believe that IBM and Linux are very unlikely to suffer significant damage as a consequence of SCO’s actions.

The most likely consequences for SCO are a long and bitter legal dispute, a huge loss of confidence and loyalty in its customer base and, ultimately, failure.

Realistically the most likely “upside” for SCO is that it will reach a settlement with, or be acquired by, IBM for a sum that is a fraction of the $1bn claimed in the lawsuit.

Some commentators will seek to raise the level of FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) by attempting to create the impression that users of Linux are in immediate danger of legal action. This is nonsense. If you are a Linux user, you are not in immediate danger, and you can rest assured that IBM’s lawyers will be doing plenty of groundwork for you.

People using Linux do not need to call their lawyers - they have months not weeks before the issue will be resolved and it is very unlikely that it will ever get that far. Even if there is merit in SCO’s claim I doubt that the case will go far enough for there to be any tangible impact.

It will be several months before the true merits of SCO’s case are established, and a great deal is likely to happen in the interim. It is very unlikely that SCO will ever be in a position to take legal action against users of Linux.

The next layer of FUD comes from those who claim that this action will have an impact on Linux adoption. More nonsense.

If there is an ‘offending’ code within the Linux kernel, it will be fixed very quickly. The Linux community is more than capable of re-engineering the kernel to remove the offending code. The speed with which amendments can be made to the kernel suggest that it will take the Linux community days rather than months to replace any proprietary code that is identified. Indeed, the Linux community is already calling on SCO to identify the code that it claims to own so that it can get to work on replacing it. If you are currently using Linux, continue to do so. If you are evaluating Linux, continue to do so. Unless, of course, the distribution you are using is SCO’s, in which case I’d recommend that you switch to a distributor who you can trust not to threaten you with legal action for using the software they provide, according to the license they offered.

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