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Welcome to virtuallinux.org. You are currently reading the article "Time for Novell to Settle the SCOre". All articles on virtuallinux.org pertain to the ongoing assult on the worlds greatest Operating system. Continue on reading about "Time for Novell to Settle the SCOre"
Time for Novell to Settle the SCOre
Posted on Sunday, January 21 2007 @ 08:22:19 EST by linuxwiz |
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I'm overjoyed that with Microsoft, Sun and greedy investors bailing out
of bailing duty, SCO's ship is sinking fast from the holes it punched
in its own hull. IBM's role as anchor is finally proving effective, but
the torpedo boat is captained by Novell's frighteningly accomplished
legal team, ably assisted by the SCO litigation squad, F Troop.
SCO Group is going down. Microsoft Sun
and the greedy investors that abetted SCO in its campaign to loot Unix
and Linux vendors and their customers have abandoned ship.
Microsoft's enterprise competitors and their customers gave SCO the
leverage to mug said vendors' customers for license fees when vendors
refused to drop their wallets in court. Sun and Microsoft animated SCO
as the prototypical litigious IP boogeyman in order to terrorize
competitors' customers into switching to Windows or Solaris to avoid
being hauled to court. That's how I laid it out in 2003, and I stand by
it now.
Sinking Ship
Today, I'm overjoyed that with Microsoft, Sun, and greedy investors bailing out of bailing duty, SCO's ship is sinking fast from the holes it punched in its own hull. IBM's role as anchor is finally proving effective, but the torpedo boat is captained by Novell's frighteningly accomplished legal team, ably assisted by the SCO litigation squad, F Troop.
Novell has exhibited the patience and cunning of a trap door
spider. It waited for SCO to taunt from too short a distance. Then
Novell would spring, feed a little (saving plenty for later), inject
some stupidity serum, and let SCO stride off still *****sure enough to
make another run at the nest. That cycle is bleeding SCO, which was the
last to notice its own terminal anemia.
When it became clear that SCO wouldn't prevail, Microsoft
expected only to face close partner IBM. Microsoft did not brace for
Novell, an adversary with a decades-long score to settle with Redmond.
Through discovery, Microsoft's correspondence with SCO is, or soon will
be in, Novell's hands, and it's a safe bet that it will contain more
than demand for a license fee and a copy of a certified check.
When I consider Novell to be the party of advantage in the
Microsoft partnership deal, the tone of the agreement changes.
Microsoft is handing 70,000 copies of a primary competitor's operating system to existing Windows customers, introducing Windows-only shops to the advantages of the heterogeneous enterprise.
Microsoft will be bringing Novell along on sales
calls, which is somewhat like a punished teenager agreeing to bring her
dad with her on future dates. The word "indemnity" that Microsoft
wielded so freely has turned on it, with Novell demanding indemnity
against future Microsoft IP action.
Patting Themselves on the Back
A final couch of irony is Microsoft's issuance of a press
release on a deal that would ordinarily be made on the QT. That harkens
back to Microsoft's self-congratulatory capitulation to SCO, no?
I allow that there are at least two facts that weigh against this theory. Red Hat
stated that Microsoft offered it the same deal, and the
Microsoft/Novell partnership announcement makes mention of a payment by
Novell.
To counter the first argument, Red Hat lacks Novell's
storehouse of Microsoft IP and intelligence that would make
indemnification profitable.
As for the payment made by Novell, it validates the
arrangement as a business contract by setting up an exchange of
consideration. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that if Microsoft just
handed a bouquet over to Novell to prevent Novell v. Microsoft,
Microsoft could later welsh on the deal by contesting the alleged
misdeeds that Novell used as leverage.
This is all conjecture, of course, but two absolute truths
remain: Payback is, indeed, a *****, and Microsoft is entitled to a
share. And at present, it sucks to be Steve Ballmer.
Source
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