On Sun, 2006-05-28 at 07:53 -0600, Boyd Lynn Gerber wrote:
Yes, this is true. SCO(Caldera) wanted to opensource the PC side of the 64 bit stuff for Linux. IBM put a big cabash on it. For exactly the reasons stated. This point is what every one misses. IBM really was the bad guy. Linux would have been really further/farther ahead had IBM not been the Monopilist. Sadly this is what allowed the current situation to come about.
Thank God we've got someone else here who knows this story! [ Did you work for or with Caldera? I find 99% that know this did. ] Instead of the 99% of people calling for the end of SCO v. IBM. People don't realize that Intel Monerey was going to be a _serious_ "cash influx" for Caldera. That money would go _directly_ to keeping Caldera's Linux developments going. And IBM killed that. Why? Not because they wanted to even remotely honor the contract, but because they _are_ a 1200lbs. gorilla with the money, IP and lawyers to outlast their competitors.
I agree 100%. I fear we have not heard the last from this IBM Gorilla.
Look at IBM's contributions! $1B to _maturing_their_ product line! How many GPL donations? Even Sun and Red Hat have donated _far_more_ GPL/LGPL! By an order of magnitude! Even Sun has put far more into the Linux kernel than IBM. Because Sun has always been more open with standards. And HP takes the cake for open source donations for enterprise. IBM is using Linux for marketing, not actually making donations. Linus & co. has had to _fight_ IBM and _yank_out_ code that had IBM IP. Although IBM _did_ finally surprise me by opening up 500 patents, but it was just a start. Everyone from ESR to Red Hat is calling for more. IBM is the _world's_IP_gorilla_! IBM's open source donations have been 99% non-GPL/LGPL. I can't believe Sun is so trashed on Java when IBM _does_the_same_! I don't see any GPL/LGPL on Java from IBM, in fact, many aren't even MPL-like -- just like Sun. But Sun gave us OpenOffice.org, among others. Hundreds of millions of dollars.
I only hope that the larger force of change will show IBM the error of their ways and let the pro OSS attitude make headway inside IBM to the upper echolongs that allowed this to happen.
Not going to happen. Why? Americans will quickly remember the "quiz shows" of the 1950s. Why were they so popular? People tuned in for the money. 90+% of Linux advocates are spewing off about IBM on Linux. $1B to mature big iron, $100M to port Notes, etc... How much GPL/LGPL? *0*! How much MPL-like? _Minimal_! How much "shady open source"? Still limited! Just like the '50s "quiz shows," people don't seem to tune into the actual "substance." They tune in for the money. All the meanwhile, HP, Red Hat, Sun, etc... make _actual_ GPL/LGPL donations -- _real_ open source -- and they are "criticized."
+1
Not for me -- but for the Free Software World! I'm just trying to get the message out. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ----------------------------------------------------------- Americans don't get upset because citizens in some foreign nations can burn the American flag -- Americans get upset because citizens in those same nations can't burn their own