109 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
109 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
Subject: SCO's views of Linux and comments on recent press articles (fwd)
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To: doc@ssc.com (Doc Searls), mlr@ssc.com (Marjorie Richardson)
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Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 13:49:12 -0700 (PDT)
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X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL39 (25)]
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From: Carlie Fairchild <carlie@ssc.com>
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LI has been debating if they should let SCO continue to be a member of LI
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or not, due to recent press over Doug Michels statements about SCO's view
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of Linux. Here is Doug's reply (two days after the email battles)...
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----- Forwarded message from Doug Michels -----
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>From owner-bod@li.org Fri Apr 30 13:36:13 1999
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Message-ID: <372A0EDF.C9B18540@sco.com>
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Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 13:13:19 -0700
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From: Doug Michels <doug@sco.com>
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Organization: SCO, Inc.
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X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (Win95; I)
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To: bod@li.org
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Subject: SCO's views of Linux and comments on recent press articles
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References: <199904282047.QAA0000013167@kitche1.zk3.dec.com> <37277F83.B08532FB@LinuxMall.com>
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Sender: owner-bod@li.org
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Precedence: bulk
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Reply-To: bod@li.org
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To: Linux International board and other interested parties,
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I would like to clarify my position regarding Linux and address the
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comments attributed to me in several recent press articles.
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I was quite surprised to read some of the things which I was reported to
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have said. While many of the words and phrases sound familiar to me,
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they appear to have been heavily edited and rearranged to convey a very
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antagonistic context and do not accurately reflect my beliefs. I guess
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I underestimated how badly the press wants to write about a conflict. I
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haven't seen this sort of reporting since the bad-old-days of the Unix
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wars.
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Ray Noorda made a profound, and for its time, revolutionary observation
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which he called coopetition. This was the notion that companies could
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indeed compete and cooperate at the same time. In LI we have many
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competitors that are cooperating towards a common goal, each for their
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own reasons. SCO believes that Linux is a good thing and wishes to
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promote its ongoing success. We believe that the success of Linux is
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healthy for the overall competitive landscape. We also feel that open
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source developments have accelerated the growth of the Internet and the
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general rate of innovation in the industry, and that they are often the
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precursor to important new commercial opportunities. We plan to
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continue making key open source technologies available to our customers
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as well as to continue contributing technology and resources to the open
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source community.
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SCO clearly competes with some of the other corporate members of LI,
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both those that sell a version of Linux and those that sell other
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versions of UNIX into the same markets that we target. SCO has well
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defined target markets and we work hard to create products, services and
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business models that have great value to these customers. Our recently
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increasing volumes and revenues provide some evidence that our customers
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continue to appreciate this value. We will continue to promote our
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products, services and business models as having better value for our
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customers and potential customers than the products, services and
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business models of our competitors. As always, we will do our best to
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keep this competition even-handed and objective.
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The recent articles, quoting me, were based on very small fragments of
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much longer and broader interviews. I don't have any recordings,
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transcripts or even an accurate recollection of what was actually said
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verbatim during these interviews. But, I do know what I usually say and
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also what my belief's are.
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To clarify a few points:
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a) I do not believe Linux was created by "punk kids." During
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interviews, when I am asked about Linux, I always clearly state my
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respect and admiration for Linus and the community of developers who
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participate in the open source movement. I believe that the open source
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community is often perceived as an unruly bunch of young hackers,
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especially by the IT establishment, and that this will be a factor in
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the adoption of Linux.
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b) Of course, I don't believe that Red Hat is in any way fraudulent.
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But, I do believe that there is a fundamental difference in the value
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proposition to customers between that of Open Source Aggregators, such
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as Red Hat, and that of traditional commercial software companies such
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as SCO. We will continue to educate customers so that they understand
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our view on this difference. And I will continue to try and find the
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right way to communicate this in measured and objective terms but none
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the less forcefully.
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c) I also believe in the principle that great programmers should
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"steal" great code whenever possible, so long as they do not violate any
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laws or license agreements. In hindsight, it's clear that "steal" was a
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poor and confusing choice of words on my part. I was perhaps being too
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flippant by trying to point out that one can't really steal that which
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is freely offered.
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All in all, I sincerely apologize if anything that I said, or am reputed
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to have said, has offended anyone. I promise to do my best to avoid
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saying anything which could be twisted or misconstrued into sounding
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this stupid....ever again!
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Doug
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- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- To unsubscribe from this list, send an email message to
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- "bod-request@mail.li.org" with the word "unsubscribe" in the body
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- of the message.
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----- End of forwarded message from Doug Michels -----
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