Re: Moving back to the SCO debate...

begin  Andreas Pour's  quote:
| I am amazed that they make the suggestion an end-user can be liable
| for some Linux developers' breach of a confidentiality agreement. 
| What a crock, but they worded it in such a way to be very
| misleading - i.e., FUD tactics.  Apparently they want to hurt IBM's
| market share to force a better settlement.

oh, man, it goes so far beyond this it is just amazing. this thing so 
has msft's name written all over it it's dreamt up in redmond or is a 
very convincing imitation of their kind of work.

and it is the most amazing piece of fud ever -- really takes the 
title. because their position is that anyone who distributes any 
linux in any way is potentially liable.

so imagine you're barnes & noble, or borders, or compusa, or walmart. 
though there's nothing settled here, there *has* to be a certain 
"well, why bother?" factor.

or some outfit like cheap bytes or linux central. the vast majority of 
their sales are in the two-buck distribution cds.

now, it's pretty clear that the whole thing is without merit. but i 
don't think that's the purpose. the purpose, as you noted, is fud. 
the idea is not just to hurt linux but to destroy it. and to some 
extent -- not completely, of course, but as is true of all fud it'll 
work to some extent -- it will succeed in scaring people away. 
whether it makes anybody slap himself upside the head and say, "but 
of course!" and promptly order up unixware is quite another matter.

| And I presume they are joking when they say the proprietary
| development model ensures no IP rights are violated.  One thing it
| does ensure, though, is that the violations are much harder to
| detect . . . .

they are not joking. they are lying. david boies does not joke.
-- 
dep

http://www.linuxandmain.com -- outside the box, barely within
the envelope, and no animated paperclip anywhere.

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