Wednesday, February 14, 2007
2/14 SNR II
Yet more SCO vs. PJ coverage:
All in all, I think we're seeing a return to the all-out vicious SCO of old. The latest filings in IBM and Novell have started tossing out all sorts of wild and expansive allegations, the likes of which we haven't seen since 2003 or so. It's as if the last few years of adverse court rulings had never happened. They've returned once again to their longtime obsession with PJ, which they'd seemed to have given up on after the MOG stalking incident. I wouldn't be surprised if their next move is to fire off a fresh round of new frivolous lawsuits.
From their perspective, I suppose they've concluded they've got nothing to lose at this point. And in a way they're probably right. The lawsuits are going nowhere good. Their Unix business continues its long, slow and probably irreversible decline. Their attempts to make nice (MySQL) or change the subject entirely (Me Inc.) have had no significant impact on their bottom line. And making nice at this point is probably not going to do them any good anyway. I know I'm not inclined to change my mind about them, and I know I'm not alone. Lashing out at critics probably won't help either, but it's about the only option they haven't exhausted yet.
I was going to make an analogy here along the lines of "lashing out like a wounded animal", but that's unfair to wounded animals. They at least have a good reason for their actions. SCO management, not so much. The only "injury" they've suffered is not making quite as much money off the SCO scam as they would've liked -- although they've still all done pretty well for themselves, considering that the company itself has never made an honest quarter's profit in its entire existence.
So no wounded animal cliches here. I have a vastly geekier analogy in mind anyway. Darl is sort of like the software industry's Khan Noonien Singh: He and his followers hijacked SCO (the USS Reliant in the analogy) and went on the warpath, trying to avenge all sorts of perceived wrongs, real and imaginary, many of them decades old. From there, the plan was to go on to rule the universe somehow, although that part was never very clear. Darl kept saying victory was a slam dunk, and he convinced a lot of poor saps to follow him to the bitter end, and for what? The vengeance part turned out rather badly, and now SCO's adrift, disabled and on fire. Abandon ship? Bah. No, there's nothing left to do but set off the ol' Genesis device. So if we hear Darl quoting Captain Ahab (""From Hell's heart, I stab at thee... For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee..."), or he's seen being fitted for a prosthetic musclebound rubber chest, we can be pretty sure something bad is right around the corner.
- An InformationWeek piece by Paul McDougall spends much of its time exploring the "what if SCO's right about PJ" angle. Many of its quotes and allegations come from unnamed "SCO insiders". Or possibly all from the same SCO insider. The article is unclear on that point.
I especially like how GL's longtime Domains By Proxy registration is portrayed as an astonishing mystery and perhaps a damning bit of evidence. Earth to McDougall: Everyone except you has known about this for years and years now. For some reason it's perfectly horrid that PJ wants a little anonymity, but perfectly fine to write an article like this one, which relies almost exclusively on anonymous sources. Okayyy.... - Instead of anonymous SCO insiders, the new Register piece sits MOG down for a chat. Needless to say, she's got nothing but vitriol to spew about PJ. And it isn't even new vitriol. Yawn.
- At least the VNUNet coverage avoids all the ax-grinding and superheated rhetoric. It's refreshing.
- More coverage at WebProNews, including a suggestion that SCO's now pursuing a "scorched earth" policy.
All in all, I think we're seeing a return to the all-out vicious SCO of old. The latest filings in IBM and Novell have started tossing out all sorts of wild and expansive allegations, the likes of which we haven't seen since 2003 or so. It's as if the last few years of adverse court rulings had never happened. They've returned once again to their longtime obsession with PJ, which they'd seemed to have given up on after the MOG stalking incident. I wouldn't be surprised if their next move is to fire off a fresh round of new frivolous lawsuits.
From their perspective, I suppose they've concluded they've got nothing to lose at this point. And in a way they're probably right. The lawsuits are going nowhere good. Their Unix business continues its long, slow and probably irreversible decline. Their attempts to make nice (MySQL) or change the subject entirely (Me Inc.) have had no significant impact on their bottom line. And making nice at this point is probably not going to do them any good anyway. I know I'm not inclined to change my mind about them, and I know I'm not alone. Lashing out at critics probably won't help either, but it's about the only option they haven't exhausted yet.
I was going to make an analogy here along the lines of "lashing out like a wounded animal", but that's unfair to wounded animals. They at least have a good reason for their actions. SCO management, not so much. The only "injury" they've suffered is not making quite as much money off the SCO scam as they would've liked -- although they've still all done pretty well for themselves, considering that the company itself has never made an honest quarter's profit in its entire existence.
So no wounded animal cliches here. I have a vastly geekier analogy in mind anyway. Darl is sort of like the software industry's Khan Noonien Singh: He and his followers hijacked SCO (the USS Reliant in the analogy) and went on the warpath, trying to avenge all sorts of perceived wrongs, real and imaginary, many of them decades old. From there, the plan was to go on to rule the universe somehow, although that part was never very clear. Darl kept saying victory was a slam dunk, and he convinced a lot of poor saps to follow him to the bitter end, and for what? The vengeance part turned out rather badly, and now SCO's adrift, disabled and on fire. Abandon ship? Bah. No, there's nothing left to do but set off the ol' Genesis device. So if we hear Darl quoting Captain Ahab (""From Hell's heart, I stab at thee... For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee..."), or he's seen being fitted for a prosthetic musclebound rubber chest, we can be pretty sure something bad is right around the corner.
Labels: linux, open source, sco, tech
By brx0 @ 11:45 PM 
