add another group to the list of people who have idiots for p.r.

[Q Classic]

this is when this smiley comes into play:

how many other companies have gone up against big blue's patent division, only to find them utterly crushed? far too many.

good job, SCO. i laud your brilliant tactics.

[Q Classic]

i've been reading more on that site...

big blue may be slow to do something new, but jeebus, it's 'cause it's a battleship. now that the big guns are trained on sco...

[Odin]

This is why I hate capitalism.

[Q Classic]

here's another reason to hate sco's brand of capitalism.

SCO execs unloading shares

SCO Group executives have sold about 119,000 shares of their company since it filed a lawsuit against IBM in March and the stock price increased more than fourfold.
...
Chief Financial Officer Robert Bench began the $1.2 million in executive share sales four days after Lindon -based SCO filed its lawsuit against Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM on March 6. Before Bench's sale, SCO insiders had not sold shares in more than a year, according to the Washington Service, a firm that tracks insider transactions.
"Insider sales picking up is a negative sign," said Richard Campagna, who helps manage $750 million as director of research for Cleveland-based Shaker Investments. Shaker, which owns no shares of SCO, has stakes in computer-related companies including Flextronics International.
SCO spokesman Blake Stowell declined to comment on the share sales. The company will comment on the sales when it announces fiscal third-quarter results Thursday, he said. The company has a market value of about $120 million and had 13.7 million shares outstanding at the end of April.
...Bench has sold 17,151 shares in three separate sales since March 10, reducing his holdings to 228,043 shares, according to the Washington Service and regulatory filings. Vice President Michael Wilson sold his entire stake of 12,000 shares between July 14 and July 18, the Washington Service said.
Some investors have bet that SCO may generate royalty sales from its dispute with IBM. Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software company, bought a license from SCO in May. Another Fortune 500 company purchased an SCO license, SCO said Monday. It didn't identify the purchaser.
...
At closing Monday, shares of SCO were down $1.46, or 14 percent, to $9.29, on the Nasdaq Market. IBM rose 14 cents, to $81.02, in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Other investors are betting against SCO. The amount of short interest in the stock rose more than tenfold between May and July, according to Bloomberg data. Investors sell a stock short to profit on any decline in the price.
SCO, which changed its name from Caldera International in May, has had one profitable quarter since it sold shares to the public in 2000. SCO consumed $14 million in cash in the fiscal year ended in October and had about $10 million in cash at the end of April. The company has no borrowings.

[Q Classic]

let's add the esa (not the space agency) to it.

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:37:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ryan Finnie
To: gentoo-mirrors@gentoo.org
Subject: [gentoo-mirrors] Notice of Claimed Infringement (fwd)
Greetings,
Redundant Networks (www.redundant.com / oss.redundant.com) currently is in
the official rsync pool, and we are waiting on becoming an official dist
mirror. Nonetheless, I currently have a copy of the gentoo distribution
available via http and ftp. Earlier today we received this by way of AT&T
(since our gentoo mirror is on an IP block allocated from them).
The short of it is, their DMCAbot(TM) found
/distfiles/INFMapPacks123FULL-MAN.zip, picked out the words "Pac" and
"Man", and is now threatening us under the DMCA for distributing a pirated
version of Pacman. While I'm not too worried about this (in fact, I'm
rather amused), I'm just wondering if any other dist mirrors have received
any threats similar to this.
RF

[Ted Striker]

At first glance, SCO seems to be on a suicide course and making no sense whatsover with their lawsuits.

At second glance, however, Microsoft is behind the scenes and executing a brilliant cold-war type proxy manuever against Linux.

Linux's days are seriously numbered.

You guys are not going to BELIEVE the move Microsoft is going to pull off, I mean it is absolutley brilliant. It will be like seeing the Blitzkrieg for the very first time.

[Wraith]

--"At second glance, however, Microsoft is behind the scenes and executing a brilliant cold-war type proxy manuever against Linux."

Yeah, I've seen this sort of speculation. Microsoft certainly is supporting it (that's why they bought the license from SCO; give 'em a bit more funds to go after their lawsuit with), but I think you're overstating things. While it certainly isn't below Microsoft to pull off a massive (and expensive) smear campaign like this, I don't think this is going to hurt Linux at all in the long run. Especially not with IBM joining the fight. This is where MS has to be careful. Look at some of the charges IBM put in their suit against SCO. Microsoft's usual FUD campaigining is vulnerable to several of them.

Wraith
"What is wrong with these people? This place is just begging to be destroyed!"
- Zim ("Invader Zim")

[Q Classic]

what, pray tell, is microsoft's brilliant maneuver here? and what makes you think that they're going to pull something else on top of this?

i don't see any evidence for that.

now, as for the speculation that ms gave money to --ahem-- reward sco, i can see that. but with sco facing off against heavies like ibm and middleweights like novell, sun, and others, i highly doubt that microsoft would want to be dragged into it any further than they already are.

linux's days are numbered just as windows's days are numbered.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
You guys are not going to BELIEVE the move Microsoft is going to pull off, I mean it is absolutley brilliant.

About as brilliant as the videotape they presented as evidence in the antitrust case.

[Ted Striker]

The smear campaign is only a sacrifcial lamb sent ahead until the main attack comes. SCO is taking the fall but the lawsuit is only a side circus distraction. The real battle is going to come from Microsoft itself.

I am telling you when they drop this sh1t it is going to be like Hiroshima. Like when they busted up Netscape and canned them for good.

I'm just going to sit on this info and let it unfold.

Brilliant. Freaking brilliant.

I don't even think Asher knows about it.

[Ted Striker]

I know alot of you guys are fans of IBM just because they have helped out Linux.

But after having seriously working with IBM and their products, I can say without a doubt, this is NOT a good thing.

When comparing the usablity between MS and IBM, IBM has been one of the most frustrating vendors I have EVER worked with.

You think .DLL hell is bad?

IBM will simply rename it .TLL Hell and not tell you where it is, write a 1500 page documentation manual that doesn't say sh1t, and then tell you to apply a Fixpack when the sh1t doesn't work.

Trust me IBM is NOBODY'S friend.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
The real battle is going to come from Microsoft itself.

What else is new? Not that we are surprised or anything.

[Wraith]

--"IBM will simply rename it .TLL Hell and not tell you where it is, write a 1500 page documentation manual that doesn't say sh1t, and then tell you to apply a Fixpack when the sh1t doesn't work."

In other words... exactly like DLL hell only with different names?

I'm not counting on IBM's friendship. I'm counting on them to defend their line of business, which now includes a lot of linux.

It's also nice to, for once, have the opportunity to see a small company get smeared by a huge one and completely deserve it.

As for this mysterious Microsoft thing, well, I'll believe it when I see it.

Wraith
No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up

[Q Classic]

no, i don't like ibm because of the linux thing.

i like ibm because of deep blue. ^^; this linux thing has less to do with ibm for me than sco. i just don't understand how sco could be so bad with its pr. i mean, really, if their claims had any substance, they couldn't be doing more harm to their side of things even if they tried.

stupid stupid stupid people making themselves look bad. they're as bad as the riaa in public relations, and that's really depressing.

it's no wonder our economy's in the tank and that nobody likes us, not when we have idiots like that being the "captains of industry".

[Ted Striker]

Really this isn't about SCO's pr. It's a proxy attack from Microsoft. In the worst case, it buys them more time. In the best case, it makes Linux users pay for their licenses.


The fallout from this thing is way more serious than expected.

According to Sun Microsystems President:


1) Companies that are evaluating Linux are now holding off because they are afraid of the possible legal liability that comes with it.

2) Sun is going to offer another version of Linux in addition to Red Hat. This is so customers can have a version of Linux that frees them of liability. (Sun paid SCO $100 million about 10 years ago to have the rights to UNIX).