Marc Perkel Rantz

Microsoft is SCO's silent partner in Linux Lawsuit

SCO's war against Linux and the public domain is being funded by Microsoft who is using these bogus lawsuits to undermine an operating system that they can't compete with. Lets look at some facts I gleaned off of an Article from Linux Universe

From SCO's quarterly 10-Q report:

1. Revenue for products is down

2. Revenue for services is down

3. During the three months ended July 31, 2003, Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”) accounted for approximately 25 percent of total revenue and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (‘Sun”) accounted for approximately 12 percent of total revenue.

4. MS also "exercised their option" to give SCO *more* money on July 31, 2003. So next quarter they will have another chunk of cash from MS to put on the books.
   

Microsoft isn't giving SCO money to develop their highly outdated Unix software. This is abll about supporting lawsuits and attempting to steal the work of those who have given their software freely to the common good. The bottom line is - Microsoft is subsidizing this lawsuit. It seems to me that those who are suing SCO or being sued by SCO could bring Micorsoft into the suit as a party.

Also - in the debate over "which operating system is better" I think it's fair to say that Microsoft - by cheating - has admitted through their conduct that they can not beat Linux on the merits. Microsoft knows that in the long run - Linux will prevail.

The long term problem with Windows is that it is processor and archetrure bound. So is Apple's OS-X for that matter. Linux runs on anything. If they cane out with a new processor tomorrow someone would have a Linux kernel for it within a week. Linux runs on the big iron machines like IBM mainframes and with the new 2.6 kernel about to be released Linux leaps way past Windows on scalability. So - Microsoft has reason to be afraid.

Linux on the other hand is hardly user friendly. Getting applications to work is not trivial as it is for Windows. Security in Linux is almost laughable as compared to Windows or Netware from the perspective of fine grain access control - but - access control lists are finally making their way into the Linux model. So Windows isn't going to go away any ime soon.

Posted by marc at September 20, 2003 08:51 AM | TrackBack