SCO, it was good to know ya… you coulda been so much more, Sep 21, 2007

While the Net is flush with celebration and legal analysis (and am happy that SCO did not prevail), I think my take on this is a bit more sobering in the bigger picture of our great industry.

So, if the $40 million or some part of it wasn't to compensate Microsoft for patent rights (as Microsoft clearly is suggesting), then what was it for in Novell's mind?

Just before the weekend, Network World's Jennifer Mears connected a bunch of dots that make it seem like it isn't a question of if, but rather, just when Oracle announces that it will offer a soup-to-nuts stack of software that not only includes the Linux operating systems, but one that comes from Ubuntu.

So, is Microsoft's patent license — which prevents sub-licensing of its patents — compatible with open source, or not? It's apparently a matter of interpretation.

At least for the moment, the open source and open standards worlds (the Rebel Alliance) appear to have joined sides against the proprietary warlords, led by Microsoft. Both on and off the field (where negotiators have failed to broker a truce), the engagement has not been pretty. But this is war. For the first time in the battle's history, the Rebel Alliance has dealt the warlords a stunning blow.

If the price of Windows and Office comes down, it won't be simply because of Linux. Nor will it be simply because impoverished Asians need it, as Ballmer is asserting. The price will come down because a handful of companies are redefining what $50 (or even less) gets you

The companies are well aware of their bifurcated management strategies. Both Sun and Novell have said that they're looking to simplify their rather complicated desktop management portfolios through consolidation of technologies and brands. Until that happens, when you hear either company making a big deal about how easy it is to manage their *nix-based desktops, read the fine print.

A headline like that is bound to draw the ire of the Macintosh faithful. After all, since Microsoft, which can marshal its forces and target competitors at will with lethal precision, hasn’t finished-off Apple after all these years (and I’m not saying that this was necessarily a Redmond goal), how on earth can an operating system like Linux spell trouble for Apple?

Momentum or coincidence? You decide. The pressure on Redmond seems to be intensifying, following a week-long string of "Is-there-life-after-Microsoft?" headlines: Gartner declaring Windows' permanent beta status, Ballmer acknowledging StarOffice challenges in Europe, IE-only developers lamenting their futures, plus a lot of pro-Firefox coverage.

Momentum or coincidence? You decide. The pressure on Redmond seems to be intensifying, following a week-long string of "Is-there-life-after-Microsoft?" headlines: Gartner declaring Windows' permanent beta status, Ballmer acknowledging StarOffice challenges in Europe, IE-only developers lamenting their futures, plus a lot of pro-Firefox coverage.

The Internet went all abuzz last week when a report by Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer posited that Microsoft was keeping open its legal options against licensees of OpenOffice.org. Commonly known as OpenOffice, the software is a freely downloadable open source productivity suite that constitutes a significant portion of Sun's commercially offered StarOffice. It also exemplifies the threat that the open-source movement poses to Microsoft.

Given the growing popularity of Linux as an unbloated host to server-based applications like Web, database and application servers), a freely deployable, enterprise-class database server can be a good thing. At first, open-source databases such as MySQL come to mind. But, in a subsequent e-mail exchange with a Sybase spokesperson, I was also advised that going the open-source route would not only fail to provide me with enterprise-class solutions, but that "other 'free' databases have General Public License restrictions or complex open-source licensing issues that limit developers' ability to deploy their applications."

Judging by his latest blog entry, Sun COO and president Jonathan Schwartz has something new to keep him up at night -- the growing perception that Solaris x86 is anti-Linux -- anti-GNU/Linux, to be specific. Using some examples (including a recent News.com story), Schwartz fingers the press for fueling the alleged misperception.