The Groklaw Story, Part Two, Mar 10, 2004

Last week, LinuxInsider published a story looking at the role of Groklaw.net, an informational Web site dealing with The SCO Group's lawsuits against Linux users and supporters. The story contained both expressions of support for, and criticism of, Groklaw and its founder-publisher Pamela Jones, including statements by SCO's public relations director, Blake Stowell.

The story elicited a storm of protest and abuse from members of the open-source community, ranging from allegations of biased reporting to suggestions that its publishers were secretly in the service of proprietary software vendors. One criticism was that Jones was not given the opportunity to respond.

The publishers feel that the story presented both sides and that its critics failed to distinguish between presenting the views of a party to a dispute, and endorsing them. Stowell's comments, it was felt, could stand or fall on their own merits.

Why would Microsoft bother to help keep the little SCO Group afloat through particularly trying times? Look at the big picture:

Which business entity, in all the world, would benefit most by SCO Group staying in business? SCO is in business, ostensibly, to sell Unix products and services -- but in reality, it spends most of its time and money filing enforcement litigation to protect intellectual property contracts that are widely considered questionable in nature.

Which business entity could most easily afford to fund a company like SCO Group directly -- and would also have the power and influence to fund it indirectly?

The answer to both: Microsoft.

SCO should know there is ample case law asserting that APIs can't be restricted and are available for all to implement under "fair use" in copyright law. But even if such precedent did not exist, the Unix definition still can't be claimed as SCO's property. When Novell exited the Unix business, it transferred the Unix API, definition, and trademark to The Open Group, (http://www.opengroup.org/austin/papers/single_unix_faq.html), which maintains it today as their Single Unix specification.

SCO was only sold some rights to the Unix implementation. The Open Group asserts that anyone can implement the Unix API without any copyright encumbrance. So much for SCO's remaining copyright infringement claim.

A total of 312 billion VND (20 million USD) will be injected into the application and development of open source software in Viet Nam covering the 2003-07 period.

It was announced by the Science and Technology Ministry at the third Asian forum on open source software which opened in Ha Noi on Monday morning.

The investment aims to speed up the application and development of the new technology in the country, thus contributing to protecting intellectual property rights and reducing the costs of buying software for the public sectors. It is also intended to create special IT products.

Speaking at last week’s Flashforward 2004 , Macromedia’s Chief Software Architect Kevin Lynch hinted that the company has plans to port Flash MX to Linux.

The first step will be to offer a version of Flash MX for the WINE platform. WINE is a free implementation of Windows that runs on Unix and Linux. If that version proves popular enough, Lynch said the company will consider porting its applications directly to Linux.

Linux experts say the best Linux interfaces "pale besides the glory that is the Mac OS X user interface".

Linux Magazine includes details of the five variants of the open-source Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) operating systems, including Apple's BSD-based Mac OS X.

The report states: "Mac OS X is the leading Unix desktop operating system of all time. It may not look like a Unix variant to you, but underneath its glossy exterior lays an operating system based on the 4.4BSD-Lite2 Open Source distribution and the Open Software Foundation Mach 3."

The battle between Windows and Linux has extended to the cash register--literally.

The two operating systems, which are contenders in the server market and to a lesser degree on the desktop, are also vying for a place in point-of-sale systems, the computerized registers at store checkout lines. Systems using versions of Microsoft's Windows accounted for the bulk of shipments in North America in 2003, but Linux shipments grew slightly faster over the course of the year, according to research from IHL Consulting Group.

Microsoft is not on the verge of getting swept away by a Linux tsunami, as some open-source software enthusiasts have suggested. But Linux is a small wave slowly building every day, and threatens to dampen Microsoft's higher-growth server business.

Analysts differ over when the Linux wave reaches a critical crest, indicating that point has yet to arrive. But as it builds, Linux is putting Microsoft on the defensive, forcing the world's largest software maker to cut prices and consequently threatening margins.

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.2.1, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.2.1 ships with a basic desktop and eighteen other packages (PIM, administration, network, edutainment, utilities, multimedia, games, artwork, web development and more). KDE's award-winning tools and applications are available in 49 languages (now including Bengali, Icelandic, Japanese, Lithuanian, Low Saxon, Latin Serbian and Tajik).

KDE, including all its libraries and its applications, is available for free under Open Source licenses. KDE can be obtained in source and numerous binary formats from http://download.kde.org and can also be obtained on CD-ROM or with any of the major GNU/Linux - UNIX systems shipping today.

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