What if SCO is right? F***'em anyway!
Darl has been inconsistent enough that it's not hard to assume that SCO doesn't have a case-- but if SCO does have a case, what are we supposed to do about it now anyway? There will be time for introspection later on, when we really do know the truth. Right now is the time for hanging tough.
Sure, IBM is probably taking the SCO threat more seriously than it's letting on publically-- because that's how the game is played.
What's going on right now is all about public perception, and psyching out your opponent. It's the proverbial war of nerves. FUD may not be the end that SCO seeks, but it certainly is a big part of the means they're employing, and the usual forces are gathering to take full advantage of the situation. I feel I have a stake in this conflict, and so I have entered the fray. I think we're all involved with this.
I love what Linus did, quietly and with no fanafare. When Linux is most threatened, clueless pundits trying to make it look like the future is in doubt, he made Linux his full-time career. Meanwhile there was a story of a former SCO executive who just dumped all his stock. And the Linux community's response is something that I can think we can all be proud of. Later, we should all have a long long dialogue about what's to be done to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. But right now, they're trying to get us to flinch, and we're not flinching. These, after all, are the people who got Microsoft to flinch.
I'm not going to worry about being wrong. Being wrong is something that happens to everybody, at one time or another. This is a kind of war... although it's a lot more fun than a real war, and a lot less dangerous. When the enemy uses Fear Uncertainty and Doubt as his weapons, I will respond with Courage, Resolve, and Faith. I don't know a lot about military tactics, but I suppose that retreat is probably a poor battle plan. Retreat is something that you improvise when the time comes.
Could the SCO case be good for linux? A few scenarios...
1. SCO LOSES An IBM victory in court gives Linux an enhanced aura of legitimacy.
2. SCO WINS and the required changes to the code are so extensive that they present an opportunity for Linux to reorganize itself in ways that are more practical. Perhaps the existing distros get together, examine their respective weaknesses and strengths, and recreate themselves in ways that make the distro choices less baffling for newcomers. Perhaps they work together to create greater compatability beween distros. It seems unlikely that the scope of the required changes would come to this.
3.SCO WINS , the code must be recreated, and Linux is given an opportunity to demonstrate its greatest strength. With a massive network of programmers all over the world, there is and never has been a software organization that is better equipped to deal with the need to quickly replace large amounts of code than Linux. If Linux has to rewrite the code, I believe that the clueless pundits will barely have time to publish their smug obituaries before the mirrors are up and running with the the new code. Darl has pretty much acknowledged as much in his public statements. This is what I think would probably happen in the event of a major SCO victory.
Is this wishful thinking? No more than the doomsday scenarios put forth by the clueless. There are probably many more ways that the SCO case could be good for Linux.
The Linux Community Should Dump SCO and SUN
Maybe Linux should dump that excess bagage, SCO and SUN. In order to do this, Linux would have to drop POSIX compliance and IBM would have to build a library that replaces Java completely.