SCO to Unix developers, We want you back 427
NoGuffCheck writes "CRN is reporting that Darl McBride is looking to get Unix developers back onboard with cash incentives for completing training in SCO's new mobile application kit; EdgeBuilder. It doesn't stop there; there's a 12-cylinder BMW or $100,000 dollars for the development of the best wireless application."
Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Funny)
It isn't a licensing fee. It's the price of paying the SCO lottery! For the low low price of $699, you have a chance at one of several fabulous prizes including $100k, a luxury car, and a night of terror on Darl's private yacht complete with built-in dungeon! Fun for the whole family!
Not me (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Funny)
Finding out developers still hate you passionately: Priceless
- G
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well . . . maybe right for SCO
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Funny)
"Yeah, I know it's happened before, but it won't happen again - I swear! Come back home baby."
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Insightful)
(We want the insurance money)
Two bottles of whining. (Score:5, Funny)
arroot: so...
SCOdev: what?
arroot: how 'bout scheduling a grep job to see if there is any SCO IP in Linux?
SCOdev: are you crazy? what if the server is logging and the resource throttle triggers an alarm to the CEO?
arroot: but I love you so much.
SCOdev: it's too risky.
arroot: pleeeeease?
*login*
IBMdev: SEC said it's "ok" to give the AIX repository a grep job, or SEC will come down to perform a grep job, or I can do it. But for Gates' sakes don't use
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Funny)
Once again I am beaten to the punch.
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Funny)
I just thought it must have been missing a few words:
SCO to Unix developers: We want (to shoot) you (in the) back
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes SCO is claiming such things in both the court of public opinion and sometimes in the court as well.
Any laid off developer would be better off collecting unemployment and staying out of SCO's lawyers reach.
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ooooh... I don't think anyone's prepared to find that. 'course I don't think it's going to happen, so the preparedness probably isn't an issue.
I expect that they'll probably find people to come work for them. Not because of any automobile inspired conversion on the road to Damascus, but just because some people will be desperate enough to work for someone they hate. But they'd have to be desperate. And if they're wise they'll get they're money up front, because SCO probably won't have anything to pay them with by the time development finishes.
Only of course they can't can they? Because it's a "prize", and you don't award prizes until the end. So I guess they'd have to be gullible as well as desperate.
I still don't think anyone's going to stop hating them though.
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ah, but there's a catch... (Score:5, Insightful)
How many developers will go to work for a company without typing their name into Google.
How many people with ANY experience with Unix don't know about SCO.
Finally there is a major danger having SCO in our work history. Even if they loose this law suite which I bet they will someone will buy the SCO IP. Would you risk hiring a developer that worked for a company that filed such outlandish IP based law suites? Not everyone has the deep pockets of IBM.
I think that working for SCO might just be too dangerous for just about anyone to risk.
Let me be the first to say (Score:5, Funny)
What a waste (Score:5, Insightful)
This is such a waste of their time. Do they really think anyone is going to take them seriously? Sure, a few misguided folks might, but, as far as I know, SCO's reputation is now squat in the tech industry. Besides, the incentives SCO offers probably won't be enough to pay off the lawsuits that SCO will file against you before you've finished your app.
Perhaps they should create a contest for "most creative way to destroy SCO" or something like that instead. It'd be much more fun. (Although seeing who actually enters this contest might be interesting.)
Re:What a waste (Score:5, Insightful)
that doesn't mean we have to buy what SCO is selling though!
Tom
Re:What a waste (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What a waste (Score:5, Funny)
It's all about the pitch (Score:3, Funny)
Second prize... is a hundred thousand dollars
Third prize... we steal your code
ABC
A Always
B Be
C Coding!
MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmmm... on a completely cough random topic, I think I might switch from MySQL to Postgres.
HP, I could care less about (their computers are cheap, and their calculators are nothing like they used to be), but I thought that MySQL had a decent set of morals. The fact that they could maintain enterprise support while still offering an open-source version is an indication of that. (Although I believe some of the MySQL products are available only to enterprise customers, which is evil.)
Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! (Score:3, Interesting)
Are you saying that MySQL is immoral/evil because they *gasp* charge for some things they invest time and money to develop, or is my sarcasm meter broken?
Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm confused by this post. I just have to ask you to clarify...
Are you saying that MySQL is immoral/evil because they *gasp* charge for some things they invest time and money to develop, or is my sarcasm meter broken?
No, I think he means mysql is evil because they are sponsoring SCO's disgusting attempt to buy their way out of the history books and back into mainstream corporate and technology circles. I happen to agree...MySQL is more evil than companies like HP et.al. for the very reason he cited: they are in the free software community, they know the issues, and they certainly cannot be ignorant of how Darl McBride and SCO tried to steal GNU/Linux from its creators (yes, steal, because if McBride et.al. had succeeded in their fraud, the creators of the Linux kernel, and perhaps the wider GNU community, would have been denied the right to legally use their own creations), and they've chosen to sponsor this despite that knowledge. At least a big company like HP may not have followed this (all the SCO bruhaha could be beneath their radar).
I agree that sponsoring an evil knowing its full implications is an act of greater maliciousness than sponsoring an evil in ignorance of its full implications, and MySQL certainly appears to fall in the former category.
It's a pity...I actually like their product. Time to give postgres a gander I suppose.
Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! (Score:3, Funny)
Voting with your wallet, eh?
Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! (Score:5, Insightful)
One could also say that MySQL is supporting their customers who may not have a choice of platform. If I understand correctly, MySQL was supported on SCO and than it wasn't for a time and now it is. I doubt all administrators of SCO systems drink the Kool-Aid SCO offers and would love to switch platforms but cannot due to money, personel, or software that would need to be ported. Sometimes transitions start in phases and running MySQL on SCO might be the start (or an intermediate step) of proving that the existing system can be moved to another platform. I applaud MySQL AB for sticking by customers who are in a less than appealing situation. Someday those administrators or DBAs may find themselves in different jobs and they will probably be more likely to choose MySQL AB products if those products aren't already in place. Additionally if these people choose MySQL sometime back, having the support from MySQL must have been a relief for a number of reasons.
I don't believe users should have to suffer for someone elses mistakes but the big point here, to me, is that MySQL AB is supporting its users and isn't that what we want from any company or source of our choice of tools?
My Bad - Mysql and HP are NOT SCO sponsors! (Score:5, Informative)
Right. I went back and read TFA, and Mysql is NOT sponsoring this. Neither is HP. They are offering Mysql and HP "training," and smearing those company's names in the eyes of those who don't read carefully enough (the poster I replied to, and myself to name two).
I stand corrected: Again, MYSQL and HP are NOT Sponsors of SCO's laughable ploy, and probably have nothing whatsoever (or as little as possible) to do with SCO.
Re:My Bad - Mysql and HP are NOT SCO sponsors! (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit. Google for SCO Forum 2006 [caldera.com]. Click the "sponsors" link. Read that HP is a Platinum Sponsor and MySQL AB is a Gold Sponsor. Now, that may mean $10 and $5 respectively, but you can bet your butt they're letting SCO use their names in the advertising.
Your idea of "as little as possible" covers a whole lot more than mine.
Re:My Bad - Mysql and HP are NOT SCO sponsors! (Score:4, Informative)
They may not be sponsoring the wireless cr*p from SCO, but MySQL is clearly identified as a "Gold Sponsor" of SCO Forum 2006. See this page: Warning: Flash [sco.com]
While on the subject: that page must qualify as one of the most pointless uses of flash ever! And are they entering a competition for the ugliest front page to their website?
FALSE! HP and MySQL are ''GOLD'' sponsors (Score:4, Informative)
Quote from TFA:
> To draw Unix developers back into its embrace, SCO is offering cash incentives for
> developers to attend its upcoming user group conference in Las Vegas in August.
Quote from promotional materials for the above user group conference:
> SCO and MySQL AB have teamed to create the ideal applications platform SMB and
> replicated/branch enterprise computing environments. With SCO and MySQL, you gain the
> competitive advantages offered by both open standards and open source.
MySQL AB is listed as a 'Gold' sponsor and the preceding is the copy for that placement.
RIP DEC (Score:4, Informative)
Re:MySQL is sponsoring this?! WTF?! (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, it was an end-user printer. So? I rate a company based first on my experiences with it, then on reports from other people. That inevitably means that if their consumer products are shoddy, I will consider the company a manufacturer of shoddy goods. And HP isn't quite there...the printer is cheap, but not shoddy. Their technical support, however, is shoddy.
I don't expect the kind of quality from a commercial produ
Re:What a waste (Score:5, Informative)
I looked at TFA, the SCO contest site, the SCO site, and NONE of it said MySQL or HP was sponsoring this contest. It did say there would be MySQL and HP training at the SCO forum, but that doesn't mean that the training is provided by or sponsored by those companies.
SCO is trying to promote its alternative to LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) with SCAMP (SCO, Apache, etc.). But because it can easily acquire and redistribute all of these components under the GPL and even offer its own support and training for them, it can make things look official when they're really not.
I'd need some more evidence than an unsupported post on
- G
Re:What a waste (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What a waste (Score:4, Informative)
Here you go:
http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/news/article
Re:What a waste (Score:4, Informative)
monkeyboy (Score:5, Funny)
use the Ballmer mantra, Darl. you have to sweat like a pig to convince your audience...
If I'm the only developer (Score:3, Funny)
Quick, everyone send them the programer you hate working with most .... this should improve morale appropriately for most companies out there
Ring Tones? (Score:5, Insightful)
So they go from something meaningful to Ring Tones? That's one crazy roller coaster.
Re:Ring Tones? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ring Tones? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not surprising at all... SCO is now like VRML, a technology that was always looking for a purpose, rather than technology trying to solve a purpose. It almost reminds you of this company in the year 2k in SF, Istorage I want to say? The original business model was to provide 25MB of FREE storage space that you could access anytime! BY 2002, they had become a design studio or something.
Companies have to keep rolling, so the executives can keep the money and options going.
Reminds me of... (Score:5, Funny)
For $100,000 (Score:4, Funny)
Re:For $100,000 (Score:3, Insightful)
UNIX Developers to SCO (Score:5, Funny)
Unix developers to SCO:Suck it (Score:4, Funny)
UNIX Developers to SCO: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:UNIX Developers to SCO: (Score:4, Funny)
Re:UNIX Developers to SCO: (Score:4, Informative)
Re:UNIX Developers to SCO: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:UNIX Developers to SCO: (Score:5, Funny)
UNIX Developers to SCO: We want you dead.
UNIX Developers to SCO: Lick our nuts.
UNIX Developers who are channeling Steve Ballmer to SCO: Go fuck yourself. (Throw chair)
Obligatory article nitpicks... (Score:5, Informative)
No, it's a clone of Unix, and it is no longer designed only for Intel chips. It was originally designed just for the 386, but now runs on anything, including your toaster.
What the hell is a "biztone"?! Is it some sort of ringtone for your cell phone where instead of ringing it goes, "Yeah, um, about those TPS reports..."?
Re:Obligatory article nitpicks... (Score:3, Funny)
You did get the memo, right?
Re:Obligatory article nitpicks... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Obligatory article nitpicks... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think somebody should go for it (Score:3, Funny)
They're prepping for the shareholder lawsuit (Score:5, Interesting)
Lost trust (Score:5, Interesting)
This is why their former customers are not going to be future customers, unless they're badly locked in on some 3rd party software. And non-customers will never become customers. Who wants to do business with somebody who'll sue you for moving to a competitor's product? It's like getting divorced from a gold-digger.
Re:Lost trust (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure there are plenty of less-than-ethical developers who wouldn't scoff at the potential of a BMW (note the article says 10-cyclinder whereas the summary says 12-cylinder) or the $100,000. Developers don't own their work, so the question of stealing work becomes irrelevant. The relevant question is whether an SCO manager will just give the cash prize to his nephew.
To reiterate: developers aren't clients so the trust question doesn't arise, or at least takes a different form.
Prisoners dilemma (Score:5, Interesting)
Except in theis case it's developers avoiding working for SCO. But the less who do, the better the chances for someone else to get the prize. So there's an incentive to break ranks. Maybe be the one and only developer.
Think of it as a lottery with your integrity against winning a fast car.
Re:Prisoners dilemma (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Prisoners dilemma (Score:5, Insightful)
You have a contractual relationship with a company that is on record for stating that contracts are to be used as weapons against their customers/partners/employees.
Sign a contract with a venemously litigious company like SCO and unless you have a lot of capital to spend on lawyers (one hell of a lot more than the $1000 they're offering), SCO owns your ass (and any code you write might well be considered "tainted").
Not worth it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not worth it. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not worth it. (Score:3)
"For what profit has a man, if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? or what will a man give in exchange for his life?"
The book of Mathew chapter 16 verse 26
Re:Not worth it. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a trick! (Score:3, Insightful)
I think they need a reality check: perpetual motion is not possible in this universe.
Maybe this is just money laundering, they give you the money, write it off as expense. Then pay their lawyers by letting them to sue the people with the money and the BMWs.
They must be avoiding taxes with this somehow!
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe Darl has something... (Score:5, Funny)
"During the last 25 years, SCO has been committed to [destroying the reputability of] the Unix platform and continues to reaffirm its commitment [to make fools of ourselves while the rest of the world actually accomplishes something useful]," Darl McBride, SCO president, said in a teleconference Tuesday morning.
I applaud him for finally admitting what his company has been doing. Of course, he can shove his BMWs up his
Sorry SCO (Score:5, Insightful)
You're DEAD. Get over it. File chapter 11 and liquidate those assets already.
Re:Sorry SCO (Score:5, Informative)
File chapter 11 and liquidate those assets already.
I always thought that chapter 11 was "reorganization" and chapter 7 was "liquidation"
Re:Sorry SCO (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, this theory doesn't really reflect much o
Re:Sorry SCO (Score:5, Interesting)
You are absolutely right. I worked on SCO systems as a contractor for TACO BELL for a few years programming and maintaining their back of house software used on PC's in the store. They had an effort to create a windows based in-store system, but that has been abandoned. Now, they are porting their back of house applications to SUSE Linux with a view to getting off of SCO systems as soon as they can. The same is true, I believe for their fellow Yum brands company, Pizza Hut.
This latest move by SCO is desperation -- trying to find some new market in which to stay alive while their bread and butter UnixWare and OpenServer business withers and dies. SCO is going down.
Anything good about UnixWare or Sco-Me? (Score:4, Insightful)
It sounds like they think they have is a niffty middle-ware stack for cellphones and they want to use that as a hook for selling their Unix stuff. But if their middle-ware stack is so niffty that it would attract developers, why not port it to other systems to widen the audience and build a new business on that? That was the strategy taken by 'old SCO' aka Tarantella before they unloaded unix on Caldera.
Can anybody comment (intelligently) on their middleware?
I'm stuck with OpenServer (Score:4, Interesting)
I maintain an OpenServer box for work only because of a legacy app that requires it. Well, strictly, the app requires Microsoft Xenix to run - it's from 1983 (!!) - but SCO OpenServer's XENIX kernel personality does the trick with a few quirks. OpenServer at least supports PCI, >16MB RAM, and >512MB disks, unlike XENIX. (OpenServer 5.0.5 actually supports up to 2TB disks/arrays, >137GB ATA disks, etc. Not bad for an OS from 1995). If it weren't for that need - which Linux can't satisfy even with the defunct ibcs project - I'd be rid of OpenServer in an instant. Linux 2.6 isn't as stable as I'd like, but that's worth it
I can't imagine anybody buying OpenServer now. Its only purpose is legacy support. Unixware doesn't even have that. Before Sun released Solaris for free, they had a tiny sliver of hope from people who need more stability than Linux provides
Even if their technology wasn't obsolete crap, who on earth would buy from a company that sues its own customers? Oh, wait, I use Microsoft software at work and I'm well aware of its involvement in the BSA & BSAA so that's no argument at all... but the obsolete crap point holds.
I have a few SCO customers.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides, even the latest versions of SCO/unix seriously suck. We swapped out a tape drive in one and it took days to get it running and required lots of phone time. Until I started on this project I had forgotten how difficult Linux was in 1993; that's where SCO is now.
Plus no bash shell. No up-arrow command scrolling. Arggh!
Roller coast ride? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Roller coast ride" implies movement both up and down. So I don't think that the term applies to SCO. "Falling like a rock" is the term I had in mind.
This is Darl's "Cover my ass" strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is Darl's "Cover my ass" strategy (Score:4, Informative)
SCO's stock is currently at $4.30, which is about where it has been since the the climax that occurred in 2004. Today's stock price is almost smack dab in the middle between the 52 week high and the 52 week low and today's trading volume so far has been 250 shares. Current price is the same as it was when it opened today. I would call this the doldrums rather than a "free fall". Large amounts of SCO's stock is held by a very few number of people and few outsiders want to buy any, which means that the stock trading volume is generally very low and the price is steady. I wonder if there is anything, short of losing two appeals after losing to IBM, that will significantly impact SCO's stock price.
Re:This is Darl's "Cover my ass" strategy (Score:4, Interesting)
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SCOX&t=5y&l=off&z
Darl's sadness (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow. When you have to pay a community reknowned for volunteerism and hacker fascination, that's just profoundly sad.
bmw, huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Disappointing... (Score:5, Funny)
I was kinda hoping they'd offer SCO Linux Licenses as the top prize. On the other hand, with $100K, you can buy 143 of them, at $699.00 each!!!
Ain't gonna do it (Score:5, Funny)
Dear SCO (Score:5, Informative)
We don't like you. You don't play well with the other children on the playground. We think you're mean and we're not going to let you play dodgeball with us at recess.
Besides that, your products are pretty awful. The only redeeming quality of Caldera Linux was that it was based on RedHat. That made it really easy to completely dump your distribution and go to RedHat when you guys got out of the Linux game. Your OpenServer product is the the most god awful piece of crap ever sold. It's so painful to work on that I'd rather just gouge out my eyes with a spoon.
Please just go away.
What kind of apps would be appropriate? (Score:4, Funny)
hmmm any others?
Mysql + SCO???? WTF (Score:3, Interesting)
This is disgusting.
Mysql AB should be ashamed of themselves for this blatant support of an OSS attacker.
Postgresql
+better ANSI compliance
+ACID
+not a toy database
+doesn't support SCO finances
Make your move today!
Where's the upside? (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose I could develop an app on either my Red Hat or Suse boxes, then port it over to SCO. But you know, I'll just bet I'd have to pay about $700 for that "privilege."
Then I'd submit it... I'll bet buried in the "contest" rules somewhere is a clause about their getting rights to use or expand on any or all submissions. So my IP would essentially become theirs.
The only even remotely "up" side of this is that I'll bet my app would stand a fair chance of winning just 'cause there'll be so few entries.
On second thought, maybe I'll just go buy $695 worth of lottery tickets and a six pack...
Not a 12-cylinder BMW (Score:4, Informative)
Porting NetworkManager to SCO (Score:3, Funny)
3 E-Z steps to SCO ressurection - serious (Score:5, Insightful)
Step 2: apologize
Step 3: Entire executive team and anyone else who supported the lawsuits resign and disgourge yourself from any lawsuit-related profits, such as profits from short-selling.
Do that, and I'll consider helping them out. Until then, they are blackballed.
Old joke (Score:3, Funny)
What's the difference between a BMW and a porcupine?
The porcupine has pricks on the outside.
Thank you! I'm here all week! Tip your waitress! Help her back up!
Are you kidding? (Score:3, Insightful)
How can they afford to pay the $100,000? (Score:3, Funny)
Darl McBride - may you rot in hell (Score:5, Informative)
Hi, its Paul. You don't remember me because you weren't associated with SCO at the time, but I was an SCO developer and beta tester 'back in the day'. I ran a public access SCO UNIX system in Philadelphia. I (helped) run the UNIX SIG on CompuServe and converted a bunch of applications so they ran on SCO platforms. On the commercial side, SCO UNIX ran construction management and engineering procurement software for a $500MM project (it no longer runs on SCO).
Not any more, Darl. That ship has sailed. I'm a 50 year old, bald, bearded engineer and I'm mad as hell at you Darl. I will do anything in my power to make sure you fail. I grep'ed through old source code just to find prior art (and I still have source from 1984).
I'm not alone Darl. We are the decision makers now. Money and cars don't cut it. Your goin' down, Darl, and the harder the better.
Your pal,
Paul
Its all in the terms and conditions, lol (Score:4, Informative)
Some nice items:
"You must be a qualified developer with the
So, they can say you are not qualified because they have given no criteria about what is or what is not qualified.
You need this much machine:
"a. Memory 768MB, HIGHLY recommend 1GB plus
b. Windows XP Pro or Windows 2003 server (Windows XP Home will not work)
c. Processor speed - faster the better, at minimum should be Pentium (P4 class) 1.8 - 2.0GHz plus.
d. If firewall software is installed, it must be configurable.
e. Need to be able to disable anti virus software"
This would require having Windows XP Pro or 2K3 Server, no thanks.
It would cost more than $1000 to get to vegas, stay at a hotel, make sure you have the software & hardware needed.
So, $1000? Not worth it.
20% extra for the lawyers. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:SCO and a comeback (Score:3, Insightful)
The toughest job in tech right now must be a SCO sales person. The swear words they must have learned from cold calling...
Re:It would be wise to take advantage of this . . (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:troll? (Score:4, Insightful)
I just don't get the whole BMW/MB thing. They still look like cars my grandfather would drive.