The SCO Express Rolls On

By Bill Claybrook
http://aberdeen.com/ab_company/bios/claybrook.htm

July 7, 2003

When will the SCO Express be coming to your company to try to convince it that it needs a Unix System V license [ http://aberdeen.com/ab_abstracts/2003/06/06030008.htm ] to be safe? At this stage, SCO does not seem to be having much success in rounding up potential licensees. The last one that I heard about was Microsoft. It was scared enough to buy a System V license, so why aren't a lot of other vendors with Unix as part of their business offerings scared enough to comply and obtain a license [ http://aberdeen.com/ab_company/hottopics/askanalyst/claybrook061603.htm ] ?

SCO allegedly (I must use that word everywhere now) is going to Japan to talk to the CE Linux Forum. The CE Linux Forum, announced last week, counts among its members some of the largest technology vendors in the world, and IBM also wants to join. I guess IBM wants to be involved in another potential lawsuit with Linux for customer electronics. By the time that many of the vendors who are involved in developing embedded Linux platforms get done chopping away at Linux to remove the functionality not required in a phone, or some other electronic consumer device, even the code that SCO showed me will be gone.

It appears that SCO is realizing that most technology companies that use Linux or Unix are refusing to be intimidated [ http://aberdeen.com/ab_abstracts/2003/06/06030020.htm ], and most users that I have talked with are not worried about the lawsuit. Part of buyers' confidence is derived from the fact that a tiny company - SCO - is suing IBM [ http://aberdeen.com/ab_abstracts/2003/03/03030019.htm ], one of the largest computer companies in the world. Buyers feel that due to its size and resources, IBM [ http://aberdeen.com/ab_company/hottopics/ibmlinux/default.htm ] is in a strong position to defend itself in this case. So most suppliers and almost all users are content for the time being to sit back and wait until the lawsuit is over.

3:54 ET

Copyright 2003