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Date:      Tue, 18 Nov 2003 23:24:46 +0100
From:      Michal Pasternak <michal@pasternak.w.lub.pl>
To:        Arjan van Leeuwen <avleeuwen@piwebs.com>
Cc:        advocacy@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: SCO goes after BSD?
Message-ID:  <20031118222445.GA18709@pasternak.w.lub.pl>
In-Reply-To: <200311182219.09828.avleeuwen@piwebs.com>
References:  <200311182219.09828.avleeuwen@piwebs.com>

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Arjan van Leeuwen [Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 10:19:07PM +0100]:
> What to think of this?

Depends.

Linux is (over)hyped these days. Everyone is talking about Linux, big
corporations want to use and develop it (Sun, IBM).  SCO also surfs on the
Linux wave to merely punch up it's stock value. BSD still seems to be less
recognized by technical laymen (eg. marketing people).

So, who would be attacked by SCO in case they decide to run against BSD
systems? Which one of big-bucks-worldwide-famous corporations would it be?

No hype, no media, no big corporation to attack - no profit for them. 

If profit is all they want, they will not attack BSD systems. Why should they?

But.

What if they want something else - eg. what if they are only a tool,
financed by some other corporation, which has to spread FUD and eventually
make problems for whole opensource software?

It would make sense only if the target is GNU: both Linux and X11-desktop
GNU-licensed software, which is already a potential threat to some other,
closed-source, commercial-desktop-producing company. It would be quite
nonsense to try to destroy software project like BSD - you can easily
incorporate all the code into your own software (the license allows that!)

So, in my opinion, in both cases BSDs will be left untouched.

-- 
Michal Pasternak :: http://pasternak.w.lub.pl



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