Re: Linux

Giles Jones says:

"They could have gone into Linux and made a fast buck, but this would have required the ability to compete."

The company that was Caldera, and is now The SCO Group, Inc., *was* into Linux. They had a fairly well respected distro, and the then-CEO was interested in the prospects of merging Unix™ with Linux to produce a real killer app, then using the existing retail channel to push it hard. Caldera *could* have been a real killer in the market, the new RedHat.

That would have been hard to do, though, so, instead, they got Darl McBride and Ralph Yarro and their plan to "monetise" the "Unix IP", despite being told up front by their own people that they didn't actually own it, found a nice compliant bunch of lawyers who were initially up for a cut of the projected "big win" from IBM, and started throwing lawsuits around. Suicide by federal court.

What's now looking increasingly likely is a filing from Novell asking for the chapter 11 filing to be rejected - Novell, despite being owed potentially much more than SCOX is currently worth, are not currently listed as a creditor in the BK request.

SCOX have just thrown another 450K away in lawyers fees preparing the BK filing itself, another half a mill that Novell won't see. Worst case scenario for SCOX (and one which has precedent), is that the BK court not only reject the chapter 11 filing, but also ban SCOX from filing for BK again, either chapter 11 or chapter 7, basically leaving the current BoD hanging out to dry.

In other news, SCOX are looking for accountants, and have asked for permission to employ temps during chapter 11 - most of their accountancy staff (including 2 senior staff) have either resigned or been "terminated" as a part of / subsequent to the BK filing process.