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SCO's Roadshow Coming Soon
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What good is a ticket to the good life, if you can't find the entrance?
What good is a ticket to the good life, if you can't find the entrance?
What to ask them? (Score:3, Interesting)
The REAL news (Score:5, Interesting)
SCO's latest filings (Score:5, Interesting)
SCO's stalling. [uscourts.gov]
Docket Text: Motion by SCO Grp to extend time until 2/4/04 for pla to amd pleadings and add parties
So, any guess on parties?
Re:Slashdot Press (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not of course talking about the crowds of screaming protesters approach here, but with a little consideration, organisation, and information a lot of their FUD spreading could be turned around on them.
To me this looks like a great opportunity - if this doesn't backfire on them, nothing will, IMHO.
Of course they may be hoping for, and may unfortunately get masses of idiots there making the non-SCO *nix comunity look like the revolting peasants, lets hope not.
A list of 'standard' questions should be distributed to be asked of SCO at these events, and the list should be tuned and improved as we find out what they have the most trouble answering.
Nothing scares these kinds of lawyers like an organised and informed public!
Funded by HP? (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, HP is directly funding SCO and nobody has mentioned anything yet. I was under the impression HP was another major friend of Linux who helped in development (such as LVM) and pushed Linux servers.
If this is true, who is on Linux side in the SCO vs IBM battle? Right now, it seems only Red Hat, IBM and the community. 50% of IBM's revenue comes from Global Services. Linux is a perfect opportunity to continue to expand this revenue since they are the only major player with both brand appeal and the size to appeal to almost any customer. With HP directly funding SCO to help them market their products they don't seem like much of a friend.
It looks like the OSS community might need to re-evaluate who their true friends are.
Re:Sponsored by HP !?!?!??!?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
An Idea.. (Score:5, Interesting)
How about people (well behaved of course) turning up outside these functions and giving all attendees free linux distributions and information as the arrive and leave?
Nothing like spreading a little information - and if SCO tries to block it, it makes them look like the bad guys.
For the cost of a couple of hundred writable CD's and some time a lot of good could be done to a very good target audience.
Re:My 2 on SCOx (Score:4, Interesting)
Avoiding States with Strong AGs (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like "Let's organize a protest time!" (Score:3, Interesting)
If they are comming to our areas, let's take it to their front doors...find out what hotels they are at, and call them at 3 am to express your displeasure with what they are doing. Remember, do anything legal to disrupt their Mobile FUD Factory.
ttyl
Farrell
A delicate question to US readers (Score:5, Interesting)
In a German article on SCO/Cannopy, I recently learned that Darl McBride is a "devout mormon". Now, I have never seen this mentioned anywhere in the many articles on SCO/McBride, even when they were specifically talking about McBride's personality.
Of course, his beliefs do in no way at all affect my factual views on his mission against Linux/GPL. But nevertheless, knowing he is a believing Mormon changes my understanding of him as a person, and possibly of his motivations. Maybe it should not, but it does change my reaction to many of his strongly worded statements.
Now I wonder why I never saw this mentioned in American articles. Is this because Americans don't think it matters? Is this because, while they know it might matter, they want to keep that out of the discussion? Is it an unwritten rule that religion is kept out of controversal discussions? Even when analyzing personalities? Or is it just not widely known that he is Mormon? Or is it, to the contrary, just implicitly assumed by US readers that a person such as McBride is probably strongly religious?
I am posting this despite knowing that it might be misunderstood as being negative on religious people, or religion in general. It is not meant that way. It is just that knowing whether someone is deeply religious or not is an important aspect in understanding his motivations.
They are using open source code for registration? (Score:3, Interesting)
From the FAQ on the website of VRS
http://www.verite.com/htmlsite/etools/t2vrsf
Can I run VRS on my own web server?
Yes, but we don't recommend it. VRS, as it stands now, is programmed in Cold Fusion and utilizes MySQL database software. To install VRS on your web server, Verite would either need to reprogram the system in a language that you support (very costly) or you would need to purchase a Cold Fusion Server and pay consulting fees for Verite to install and set it up. (VRS supports any ODBC compatible database-like Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL server, Oracle, etc.-but we prefer MySQL because of high reliability and the fact that it is open source).
So probably (not for sure) they rely on mysql as database.
Amusing. This remind on the additional note of SCO posted by release of samba 3.0
Geert
Re:A delicate question to US readers (Score:4, Interesting)
though privately they will talk about it. Mormons
are not a well liked religion; they are thought of
as a little crazy. Mormonism is a relatively new
religion and I guess all religions start off as
a bunch of crazy fanatics. Mormons are having
a little trouble shaking their reputation.
Most people in the US are familiar with their
door-to-door salesmen dressed up in circa 1960s
nerdy business casual outfits.
McBride's religion is not a big issue here in the
US. Though the Mormons are a bit clanish and the
SCO suit is filed in Utah: the only state with
a Mormon majority. There is some fear that the
Mormons "may scratch each other's back"; though
it's not discussed.
Americans will complain privately about
"Hebrew dominated media", "too many blacks
in the NBA", "bunch of white frat boys
running business", "too many Indians in hi-tech"
etc. But we don't discuss them openly in public dicsourse.
HP's Position Finally Makes Sense (Score:2, Interesting)
HP wouldn't take the risk unless they knew they were safe, and since you can only run their version on their hardware, it's no wonder. Their promotion of linux was purely for marketing reasons, and their licensing of SCO code was a clever way to profit from SCO's foibles.
The only part of this that does not make sense is that HP is sponsoring the SCO parade. Perhaps having a close tie-in to sco is how they can ensure that they won't have to actually protect any of their indemnified customers.
Re:Sponsored by HP !?!?!??!?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
I used this link [hp.com] some time ago to state that I am often asked by people what they should buy (I'm considered to be a nerd). Because of the previous sponsor action for SCO Forum and because of hp-s abysmal support for linux drivers for their scanners, I now advice people to buy Epson, and bought an Epson scanner myself as well.
If enough people send notes like this, we might make a difference. Just remember to keep it simple and refrain from cursing and swearing.
Re:What to ask them? (Score:5, Interesting)
Based on previous stories the best thing to bring may just be a digital camera good enough to reproduce the text of any slides....
But personally I think it's most interesting to ask when we'll see evidence to allow us to evaluate SCO's claim that Linux infringes SCO's copyright. They seem to like the idea of turning this into a "free" vs. "proprietary" debate, which is of course just an attempt to draw attention from the main question of whether there's actually any infringement going on.
--Bruce Fields
Re:Sponsored by HP !?!?!??!?!? (Score:5, Interesting)
A post further down says the page [sco.com] about the roadshow on the SCO site no longer mentions HP. Instead, it says the sponsor is a company called Microlite [microlite.com], whom I'd never heard of before today. From a cursory glance around their site, it appears they do backup systems for UNIX and Linux. I'd suggest letting them know how you feel about their sponsorship of these events, but they mention some SCO products by name, so presumably, they already have some idea of the kind of people they're dealing with...
Re:An Idea.. (Score:5, Interesting)
That would be AWESOME! Get a spindle of those little bitty CD's that hold like 175 MB's (the 3 inch ones like these [bestbuy.com]) and just burn the linux kernel onto each one.
Write on them, in sharpie, "SCO's business model is based on selling you this free software".
Then hand them out at the show.
Oh, it's brilliant! Also, put like an autorun.info or whatever makes things run in windows and have it pop up like a flash or html presentation of why we think SCO is full of shit.
~Will
P.S. The SCO code bounty is up to $350 on pink fairies [pinkfairies.org], and no one has claimed it as of yet. Not that I suspected that anyone would, but no one has come forth with code "from the inside" yet.
SCO attacks SGI, delays against IBM (Score:1, Interesting)
In other news, GROKLAW [groklaw.com] is reporting SCO have asked for the IBM case to be delayed by four months, as they say that they need extra time to prepare their responses to IBM and they want to add additional parties to the suit.
Re:A delicate question to US readers (Score:4, Interesting)
I find Mr. McBride's behavior really very unfortunate. In Utah, we do consider each other to be good, upstanding people. We like to think that our Church gives us a certain quality by virtue of membership, and we expect that other Mormons try to live as best they can. We support each other based on this assumption.
As Mormons, our reputation with the rest of the world is very important. We like to make a good impression because we think our message is important, and we think that others would benefit if they listened to what we have to say. I know that we have critics and detractors, but there is also a significant good that we try to stand for.
I am concerned that Mr. McBride, by his association with the LDS Church, has poorly represented my religion to uncounted millions of Open Source enthusiasts around the world. I get this feeling each time I read an article like this one, which metions the Mormon Church. In my opinion, McBride has no business aligning himself with such a cause when he is publically dishonest.
I do not know of any other LDS Linux enthusiasts who support SCO in any way. We do not feel that SCO's behavior merits any excuse, and we do not seek to justify the misrepresentations and falsehoods that SCO has propagated to the public.
I don't speak for the LDS Church at all, but this is my opinion on the matter. I trust that the Church will behave morally and responsibly as far as this matter is concerned.
Re:Slashdot Press (Score:3, Interesting)
It's all an illusion, smoke and mirrors, because they're banking on the fact that most people are ignorant, and have no clue what a farce their company has become. Future customers--but especially future investors who don't know SCO-- might be impressed by this circus act.
I find it particularly telling that, while they have no showing in New York City, they have one in Newark, NJ. To be blunt, Newark is the place to go if you want to be in the New York metropolitan area, but also want to discourage New Yorkers from coming.
Re:A delicate question to US readers (Score:4, Interesting)
Generally speaking, I don't think his religious views are important. Most Mormons, if made aware of the facts surrounding SCO's activities, would probably see him as a complete hypocrite and an embarassment to their religion.
On the other hand, there does seem to be a cultural link between Mormonism and weird business practices. It would be going overboard to say that the LDS Church or its members are obsessed with money. But thanks to a tradition of devout tithe-paying, the LDS Church is the richest per-capita religion in the world. There is also a not-exactly-doctrinal but often implied belief that righteousness leads to material blessings. Between the tithe-paying, large families, and the desire to be seen as successful, Utah leads the nation in bankruptcies despite having a highly educated population.
The politics of Utah are themselves pretty weird, and there's a lot of backscratching that goes on. But I haven't lived in other states, which makes it difficult for me to say if it's really worse than goes on elsewhere.