5 ms·

Once Linux's Biggest Enemy: Darl McBride Dies and Nobody Notices

38 points by marcodiego 2y ago

h2odragon 2y ago
I don't recall anyone talking about him as a person, in association wit "SCO lawsuits". it was always the "SCO group" company that was reviled in the press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes Remember Microsoft buying into the lawsuit on SCO's side? https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/fact-and-fiction-in-the-microsoft-sco-relationship/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/fact-and-fiction-in-...
- sam_lowry_ 2y ago
  Because everyone was afraid of defamation lawsuits while he was alife?
- bediger4000 2y ago
  There was a widely read blog, groklaw, that singled out McBride personally as a driving source of the lawsuits. Groklaw appears to be gone, but there's a wikipedia article about it.
- dagw 2y ago
  I clearly remember McBride being the 'face' of the lawsuits and his name being used interchangeably with SCO when discussing the lawsuit. Maybe not in the press, but definitely in blogs like Groklaw and various 'tech' forums.
- wink 2y ago
  I remember the name, but before I read this I couldn't connect it to a specific event. Also maybe I took it lightly, or missed a bit, but I did not get project-threatening vibes back then.
raxxorraxor 2y ago
Many don't remember SCO/TSG and their being as patent troll. An example of a non-constructive company that relies on possible legal loopholes. He probably could have contributed something positive but decided against it. Oracle now owns the remainder of it and espouses similar behavior. Perhaps its future is similar as well. They had a product palette with "open" in their product lineup: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group Strangely reminds me of open AI...
- BSDobelix 2y ago
  >Oracle now owns the remainder of it and espouses similar behavior. Perhaps its future is similar as well. I think you talk about Sun Microsystems no? SCO still sells OpenServer5/6 and Unixware7 BTW: Open in that time meant "open" to industry standards like TCP/IP same with openVMS
  - dagw 2y ago
    SCO still sells OpenServer5/6 and Unixware7 SCO is gone. A company called Xinous bought OpenServer and UnixWare at the bankruptcy sale and are the ones now selling it. Although looking it their website it is clear that nothing in the software has been updated in years. They 'brag' about their latest features like Java 1.4, USB 2.0 Support for printers and IDE ATA-6 hard dive support (now supporting drives >128GB!). Also it seem like it's been a while since they looked over their licensing. Their 'small business' license is for computers with up to 1GB of RAM and their 'enterprise' server license supports servers with up to 32 logical cores and up to a mind boggling 16 GB of RAM.
    - BSDobelix 2y ago
      I get updates on my OpenServer6 via patchck. But SCO/Xinuos never belonged to Oracle, if anything "supported" by Microsoft. Since you are so pedantic about the name "SCO" it's: >>Support four to 32 processors >>With 64 GB of memory, you can support your applications and hardware (upto 32GB general purpose memory and above 32GB to be used for dynamically shared memory). >>Large file support. Get one terabyte of data to run your applications. >>Native SATA. Support Intel’s open Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) with native command queuing and hot plug support. https://www.xinuos.com/wp-content/uploads/Xinuos-Data-Sheet-OpenServer-6-Definitive-2018-4-page.pdf https://www.xinuos.com/wp-content/uploads/Xinuos-Data-Sheet-... Where do you have your information's from?? Is the Internet Archive running again? Also MP1 from September 18, 2024: https://www.xinuos.com/kvm-support-update-pack-1-and-maintenance-pack-1-now-available-for-os6/ https://www.xinuos.com/kvm-support-update-pack-1-and-mainten...
ktm5j 2y ago
I feel like this is kind of in poor taste..
- Brian_K_White 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - lupusreal 2y ago
    F seems to carry two contradictory meanings in this kind of context. "Press F to pay respect" in a call of duty game became using simply the letter F to pay genuine respect to the departed.
  - BSDobelix 2y ago
    You should be ashamed of yourself, but your lack of self-reflection probably prevents you from doing so.
    - Brian_K_White 2y ago
      I was actually a fan of SCO for many years predating their delusions of predation. I have every right to hate that guy in a direct and personal way for actions he took which effected me. I have more right to that opinion and judgement than you do to this one. A little something to "self reflect" on.
dredmorbius 2y ago
"I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." -- Misattributed to Mark Twain (Apparently a variant of a line by Clarence Darrow: <https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mark-twain-obituary-pleasure/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mark-twain-obituary-pleasu...>.)
moomin 2y ago
Dude deserves to be forgotten. Pamela Jones deserves to be remembered.
- briffle 2y ago
  I really miss GrokLaw.. PJ was great at covering legal cases.
gnu8 2y ago
Did he ever end up saying what his true motivation was for disparaging Linux?
- 7e 2y ago
  Doing his duty to shareholders is my guess.
kayo_20211030 2y ago
It's strange it went unremarked. I remember the times, and I felt that SCO was all wrong; not evil, but wrong. But, ALS is a bad way to go, whoever you are.
mrweasel 2y ago
Weird, I was looking him up online a few months ago, wondering what had happened to him, and the software he got from SCO (SmallFoot I think the name was). He was such a weird character at the time and the whole law suit seemed to be on everyone's mind, even if we didn't think SCO would ever win. Thinking about a person like this, going home in the evening and having dinner with the family always makes me wonder what motivates them. Well money, but surely he also believed that he was in the right? It's a little sad that this two-bit manager was ever placed in charge of SCO. He was pretty much responsible for breaking SCO and ruining the lives of so many of it's employees. I'd like to have had SCO around, it was a fascinating relic of a different era. Not that they would have survived long in any case. Still I'm also a little happy that he went out an did stuff afterwards.
- phendrenad2 2y ago
  Reminds me of Nintendo in the present day. They were a technically innovative company, but recently they've stopped innovating and started two big legal wars they're unlikely to win.
alsetmusic 2y ago
> Two weeks after the announcement, FOSS writer Maureen O’Gara, evidently working in cahoots with SCO, published an article in Linux Business News that identified PJ as Pamela Jones, and which contained unverified personal information about her, including a photo that was said to be of her home. Also published were the addresses and telephone numbers that purportedly belonged to Jones and her mother. I feel like this behavior would be widely condemned and a black eye today in a way that wasn't yet felt at the time. It's possible that a civil suit could have gained ground today. Personally, I'm glad SCO went to hell. May all patent trolls join them in time.
kstrauser 2y ago
And nothing of value was lost. That loser (no really, he lost every case) set back the whole industry by several years when he tried to poison the reputation of Linux and Free Software. I shudder to imagine my career arc if he’d succeeded in destroying it. The most delicious part of the whole case was when Novell stepped in and mooted it by showing that they never actually sold their software to SCO, just the licensing rights. Youngsters here, this is also one of the reason so many of us absolutely detest Microsoft. They used SCO to try and destroy open source software legally instead of through offering better products: https://practical-tech.com/2003/05/21/cyber-cynic-the-microsoft-sco-connection/ https://practical-tech.com/2003/05/21/cyber-cynic-the-micros... And there there was reporter Dan Lyons who was all-in supporting SCO and telling the world why Linux was going to come out the loser. Oopsie! He later claimed he was just too bad at his job to understand the situation (https://www.forbes.com/2007/09/19/software-linux-lawsuits-tech-oped-cx_dl_0919lyons.html https://www.forbes.com/2007/09/19/software-linux-lawsuits-te...) To this day I close an article with his byline, assuming it’s also completely wrong.
bschmidt8 2y ago
[flagged]
bschmidt8 2y ago
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- bschmidt8 2y ago
  [flagged]

38 points by marcodiego 2y ago

I don't recall anyone talking about him as a person, in association wit "SCO lawsuits". it was always the "SCO group" company that was reviled in the press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes Remember Microsoft buying into the lawsuit on SCO's side? https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/fact-and-fiction-in-the-microsoft-sco-relationship/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/fact-and-fiction-in-...

sam_lowry_ 2y ago
Because everyone was afraid of defamation lawsuits while he was alife?
bediger4000 2y ago
There was a widely read blog, groklaw, that singled out McBride personally as a driving source of the lawsuits. Groklaw appears to be gone, but there's a wikipedia article about it.
dagw 2y ago
I clearly remember McBride being the 'face' of the lawsuits and his name being used interchangeably with SCO when discussing the lawsuit. Maybe not in the press, but definitely in blogs like Groklaw and various 'tech' forums.
wink 2y ago
I remember the name, but before I read this I couldn't connect it to a specific event. Also maybe I took it lightly, or missed a bit, but I did not get project-threatening vibes back then.

raxxorraxor 2y ago

Many don't remember SCO/TSG and their being as patent troll. An example of a non-constructive company that relies on possible legal loopholes. He probably could have contributed something positive but decided against it. Oracle now owns the remainder of it and espouses similar behavior. Perhaps its future is similar as well. They had a product palette with "open" in their product lineup: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group Strangely reminds me of open AI...

BSDobelix 2y ago
>Oracle now owns the remainder of it and espouses similar behavior. Perhaps its future is similar as well. I think you talk about Sun Microsystems no? SCO still sells OpenServer5/6 and Unixware7 BTW: Open in that time meant "open" to industry standards like TCP/IP same with openVMS
- dagw 2y ago
  SCO still sells OpenServer5/6 and Unixware7 SCO is gone. A company called Xinous bought OpenServer and UnixWare at the bankruptcy sale and are the ones now selling it. Although looking it their website it is clear that nothing in the software has been updated in years. They 'brag' about their latest features like Java 1.4, USB 2.0 Support for printers and IDE ATA-6 hard dive support (now supporting drives >128GB!). Also it seem like it's been a while since they looked over their licensing. Their 'small business' license is for computers with up to 1GB of RAM and their 'enterprise' server license supports servers with up to 32 logical cores and up to a mind boggling 16 GB of RAM.
  - BSDobelix 2y ago
    I get updates on my OpenServer6 via patchck. But SCO/Xinuos never belonged to Oracle, if anything "supported" by Microsoft. Since you are so pedantic about the name "SCO" it's: >>Support four to 32 processors >>With 64 GB of memory, you can support your applications and hardware (upto 32GB general purpose memory and above 32GB to be used for dynamically shared memory). >>Large file support. Get one terabyte of data to run your applications. >>Native SATA. Support Intel’s open Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) with native command queuing and hot plug support. https://www.xinuos.com/wp-content/uploads/Xinuos-Data-Sheet-OpenServer-6-Definitive-2018-4-page.pdf https://www.xinuos.com/wp-content/uploads/Xinuos-Data-Sheet-... Where do you have your information's from?? Is the Internet Archive running again? Also MP1 from September 18, 2024: https://www.xinuos.com/kvm-support-update-pack-1-and-maintenance-pack-1-now-available-for-os6/ https://www.xinuos.com/kvm-support-update-pack-1-and-mainten...

ktm5j 2y ago

I feel like this is kind of in poor taste..

Brian_K_White 2y ago
[flagged]
- lupusreal 2y ago
  F seems to carry two contradictory meanings in this kind of context. "Press F to pay respect" in a call of duty game became using simply the letter F to pay genuine respect to the departed.
- BSDobelix 2y ago
  You should be ashamed of yourself, but your lack of self-reflection probably prevents you from doing so.
  - Brian_K_White 2y ago
    I was actually a fan of SCO for many years predating their delusions of predation. I have every right to hate that guy in a direct and personal way for actions he took which effected me. I have more right to that opinion and judgement than you do to this one. A little something to "self reflect" on.

dredmorbius 2y ago

"I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." -- Misattributed to Mark Twain (Apparently a variant of a line by Clarence Darrow: <https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mark-twain-obituary-pleasure/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mark-twain-obituary-pleasu...>.)

moomin 2y ago

Dude deserves to be forgotten. Pamela Jones deserves to be remembered.

briffle 2y ago
I really miss GrokLaw.. PJ was great at covering legal cases.

gnu8 2y ago

Did he ever end up saying what his true motivation was for disparaging Linux?

7e 2y ago
Doing his duty to shareholders is my guess.

kayo_20211030 2y ago

It's strange it went unremarked. I remember the times, and I felt that SCO was all wrong; not evil, but wrong. But, ALS is a bad way to go, whoever you are.

mrweasel 2y ago

Weird, I was looking him up online a few months ago, wondering what had happened to him, and the software he got from SCO (SmallFoot I think the name was). He was such a weird character at the time and the whole law suit seemed to be on everyone's mind, even if we didn't think SCO would ever win. Thinking about a person like this, going home in the evening and having dinner with the family always makes me wonder what motivates them. Well money, but surely he also believed that he was in the right? It's a little sad that this two-bit manager was ever placed in charge of SCO. He was pretty much responsible for breaking SCO and ruining the lives of so many of it's employees. I'd like to have had SCO around, it was a fascinating relic of a different era. Not that they would have survived long in any case. Still I'm also a little happy that he went out an did stuff afterwards.

phendrenad2 2y ago
Reminds me of Nintendo in the present day. They were a technically innovative company, but recently they've stopped innovating and started two big legal wars they're unlikely to win.

alsetmusic 2y ago

> Two weeks after the announcement, FOSS writer Maureen O’Gara, evidently working in cahoots with SCO, published an article in Linux Business News that identified PJ as Pamela Jones, and which contained unverified personal information about her, including a photo that was said to be of her home. Also published were the addresses and telephone numbers that purportedly belonged to Jones and her mother. I feel like this behavior would be widely condemned and a black eye today in a way that wasn't yet felt at the time. It's possible that a civil suit could have gained ground today. Personally, I'm glad SCO went to hell. May all patent trolls join them in time.

kstrauser 2y ago

And nothing of value was lost. That loser (no really, he lost every case) set back the whole industry by several years when he tried to poison the reputation of Linux and Free Software. I shudder to imagine my career arc if he’d succeeded in destroying it. The most delicious part of the whole case was when Novell stepped in and mooted it by showing that they never actually sold their software to SCO, just the licensing rights. Youngsters here, this is also one of the reason so many of us absolutely detest Microsoft. They used SCO to try and destroy open source software legally instead of through offering better products: https://practical-tech.com/2003/05/21/cyber-cynic-the-microsoft-sco-connection/ https://practical-tech.com/2003/05/21/cyber-cynic-the-micros... And there there was reporter Dan Lyons who was all-in supporting SCO and telling the world why Linux was going to come out the loser. Oopsie! He later claimed he was just too bad at his job to understand the situation (https://www.forbes.com/2007/09/19/software-linux-lawsuits-tech-oped-cx_dl_0919lyons.html https://www.forbes.com/2007/09/19/software-linux-lawsuits-te...) To this day I close an article with his byline, assuming it’s also completely wrong.

bschmidt8 2y ago

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bschmidt8 2y ago

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bschmidt8 2y ago
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