News from PANUG/BizNix - May 21, 2003 http://panug.org - http://biznix.org SCO LAWSUIT - MICROSOFT TO LICENSE UNIX FROM SCO Both Lloyd Betts and Ray Robert reported a few days ago about the SCO lawsuit and about Microsoft's licensing of UNix from SCO. Here's one such article on the subject but there are many more: http://panug.org/15 Raymond L. Robert comments "Perhaps Microsoft really feels the patents are important; perhaps Microsoft just wants to lend an air of credibility to the SCO suit. You don't suppose they feel bad about confusion in the Linux camp?" Ed Sawicki was contacted by Cnet (http://www.cnet.com) about the SCO lawsuit. They wanted to know if companies that use Linux and Open Source software will now do anything different as a result of the lawsuit. Ed responds: "SCO/Caldera has always been struggling to find its place in the Linux market but has been largely unsuccessful. Nothing they do seems to win hearts, minds, and marketshare." "So they resort to tactics that have worked for them in the past: suing companies with a lot of money. They acquired DR-DOS, sued Microsoft, and prevailed. Now they're doing the same with Unix. We can't possibly know whether any of this will impact Linux because SCO is not revealing any details of their claims. If they told the Linux community which Linux code is their IP, the code would be replaced in days or weeks. But they're not interested in solving the problem. They're interested in money." "Even if it does impact Linux, it will not kill off Linux. I expect that, worst case, Linux users may have to pay a small fee to use it. Linux will still be a far better platform than the alternative." Ray Roberts comments on the Linux community rewriting any code found to be SCO's IP: "Re-writing code can cure prospective copyright and patent infringement. That still leaves issues of damages for prior infringement. And I'm not so sure that merely re-working code is necessarily a defense to a claim of breach of trade secret." FIREWALL PRESENTATION The firewall presentation at the recent PANUG meeting drew some comments. Ray Roberts commented: "Apropos of the firewall, the same day they hired me the BME signed a contract for its (first) firewall, including a one-year maintenance contract. A year later the vendor refused to renew it on the grounds that the firewall was now obsolete. They wanted $2200 in parts to upgrade it first. I was having none of this even though at the time it was the only firewall vendor that had a state contract." "Long story short, though I intended to replace it with a Linux device times grew tough in the industry. The vendor sharpened its pencils and came up with an attractively priced replacement. I was short of time, so I took the deal. Perhaps in a way this was a triumph of open source." Ed Sawicki commented: "One of the vendor's slides said that all "software-based" firewalls required frequent software upgrades but their firewall does not. This is nonsense. I've run my Linux-based firewall for a few years without problems and without having to upgrade software. I'm not anti-vendor, just anti-spin." INTERNET AUP At the recent PANUG meeting, there was discussion of companies having an Internet Acceptable Use Policy. A sample AUP is now available on PANUG's web site: http://panug.org PANUG BYLAWS PANUG's new Bylaws were adopted by vote of the membership at the May meeting. WooHoo! The approved Bylaws are in PDF format and are posted on the About PANUG page of the website (http://panug.org/about.htm) for your viewing/downloading enjoyment. The Board would like to extend words of gratitude and appreciation to the ByLaws Committee (Robert Brown and Lorraine Renard). NOVELL SURVEY Novell is asking user group members to take a survey to help Novell better understand its customer's needs and the way they are currently utilizing Novell's products and solutions. The online survey will take approximately ten minutes to complete. All participants will be eligible to win one of ten iPaq Pocket Pc h5450 and dozens of other great prizes such as Novell backpacks, t-shirts, caps, etc. http://www.novell.com/solutions/solution_survey.html DISCLAIMER PANUG and BizNix welcome contributions from all members. Member contributions do not necessarily represent the official positions of PANUG or BizNix. If you don't contribute, the views of members that contribute frequently may appear to be the official position of the group(s).