Countering FUD
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The OSDL is actively working to counter the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) being spread by SCO through the lawsuits, and also has a Customer Advisory Council in the United States, with representatives from some 20 Fortune 500 companies, as well as a similar council in Europe. The OSDL recently ran an executive education session in Japan.
"I will tell you that in none of those meetings that have taken place in the last 60 days is there any indication of a slowdown of Linux interest or adoption," he said, adding that the community is already rallying around AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler. "I have called them both and offered our assistance through the Legal Defense Fund," Cohen said.
Peter Eck, vice president of marketing for BakBone Software Inc., of San Diego, a provider of data backup and restore software and which recently helped form the Linux Advantage initiative, agreed, saying that, to date, no decision has been made on SCOs claims by any court of law.
"Its clear that, in spite of SCOs lawsuit, Linux adoption by our customers has continued unabated. From BakBones perspective, we dont see how this latest legal maneuver will change that," he said.
For its part, Linux and open-source vendor Red Hat said it is unfortunate that SCO has now decided to sue and attack its own customers. As far as Red Hat customers are concerned, the company continues to work with them to provide them with a warranty in case any issues are found, spokeswoman Leigh Day told eWEEK.
Read "Red Hat to Protect Linux Customers."
"We still look forward to the time when we can bring this matter formally to court, within the U.S. justice system," she said, adding that neither AutoZone nor DaimlerChrysler are Red Hat clients.
While AutoZone had been a Red Hat customers "years ago, they have never been a Red Hat Enterprise Linux customer. We still remain confident that our solutions are not infringing on the valid intellectual property of others," Day said.
Linus Torvalds, the founder of the open-source Linux operating system, also had harsh words for SCO. "It looks like SCO is suing their own old customers, most likely because they know they have nothing that is actually Linux-related even though they desperately try to make it seem that way," he said.
The AutoZone name had come up before: In the IBM lawsuit, SCO claimed that AutoZone was using SCO shared libraries improperly. "That was debunked pretty publicly in Groklaw. Going by past performance this is likely just another smoke screen. More lies to cover up the old lies," Torvalds told eWEEK.
Check out eWEEK.coms Linux & Open Source Center at http://linux.eweek.com for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.
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Read "Red Hat to Protect Linux Customers."
"We still look forward to the time when we can bring this matter formally to court, within the U.S. justice system," she said, adding that neither AutoZone nor DaimlerChrysler are Red Hat clients.
While AutoZone had been a Red Hat customers "years ago, they have never been a Red Hat Enterprise Linux customer. We still remain confident that our solutions are not infringing on the valid intellectual property of others," Day said.
Linus Torvalds, the founder of the open-source Linux operating system, also had harsh words for SCO. "It looks like SCO is suing their own old customers, most likely because they know they have nothing that is actually Linux-related even though they desperately try to make it seem that way," he said.
The AutoZone name had come up before: In the IBM lawsuit, SCO claimed that AutoZone was using SCO shared libraries improperly. "That was debunked pretty publicly in Groklaw. Going by past performance this is likely just another smoke screen. More lies to cover up the old lies," Torvalds told eWEEK.
Check out eWEEK.coms Linux & Open Source Center at http://linux.eweek.com for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis. Be sure to add our eWEEK.com Linux news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page:
