SCO News Roundup

• Today was day 2 of the current round of SCO v. Novell hearings. No word yet on the day's excitement, since it looks like nobody from the anti-SCO community was able to attend this time. Here's a GL article about the then-upcoming hearings, with a cute cartoon. If you don't get the "Spartacus" reference, well, Netflix has it, so what's your excuse?
  
  
• In other news, M$ has cut a Novell-ish deal with Xandros. You know, Xandros, one of those second-tier commercial distros. They inherited what used to be Corel's distro, if I'm not mistaken. I don't like the look of this, but as a practical matter, well, when was the last time you used Xandros? For me, the answer's "never", and I don't know anyone else who uses it, either. I rather suspect those numbers aren't going to improve anytime soon, given today's news.
  
  Here's PJ's take on the latest ugliness. As she notes, the terms of the deal are not identical to the Novell deal. PJ thinks it's because of the draft GPLv3, but I don't think M$ is nimble enough to respond to a fast-moving target like that. I suspect it's just that Xandros was in a weaker negotiating position, so M$ could pretty much dictate its terms.
  
  It's a sad reality of the business world that you can never, ever admit you were forced to sign a contract against your will. Customers would hate that, and investors would hate it even more. So no matter how disadvantageous the terms are, you have to put on a brave face and act like the whole thing was your idea from day one, and you're absolutely thrilled about your new "partnership". There aren't a lot of downsides to being an extravagantly compensated C-level PHB, but this has got to be one of them.
  
  
• Still, there may be a way to profit off Microsoft's latest anti-Linux strategy, provided that you're sufficently cynical and avaricious. If that describes you -- and there's no need to be bashful here -- why not try a bit of "reverse patent trolling"?
  
  
• An interesting piece from the NZ Herald: "Forget the iPhone, buy a smartphone". So, ok, the iPhone won't be available in NZ anytime soon, so you could dismiss this as sour grapes. And hey, they already have great scenery, and fascinating wildlife (hobbits included), and wine grapes are quite happy there, and it's pretty much nirvana for sailboats, and the country isn't involved in any wars at the moment, so really you'd think the lack of iPhones wouldn't be that big of a deal, all things considered. But still, it's an interesting article.
  
  
• The RIAA loses a major case. Seems that allegations without any proof don't (always) equal $$$ in the courtroom after all.
  
  
• A nice setback for software patents in the UK.
  
  
• Yet another piece debating the future of Palm. Today the company announced it's selling 25% of itself to a private equity firm, which boosted the stock a bit. But even with that, and the Foleo, and some high-profile new hires, the company's long-term outlook is still anyone's guess.
  
  Personally I hope they stick around. Think of all the poor tech journos who'd be unemployed if the "Whither Palm?" beat ever goes bust. Ok, I might count that as an upside really, but my point stands. They've ventured into making potentially interesting Linux gadgets, and that's a thing to be encouraged.
  
  
• I don't link to E! very often here, but here's a bit about the US 2nd Circuit Court second-guessing the FCC over the new "indecency" guidelines. The court seems to think the occasional F-bomb is not a big deal, or at least not something that merits a stiff fine from the feds. No word from Ralphie and his CP80 chums about this yet, but they've got to see this as a bit of a setback. Broadcast media have always been the most restrictive in terms of what you can and can't legally say, so if you don't have a free hand to censor TV, what can you censor?
  

Labels: linux, open source, sco, tech

By brx0 @ 2:26 PM