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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cheryl williamson who wrote (54610)	6/16/2003 4:51:44 PM
From: miraje	Respond to of 64865

Don't know about the status of the Unix lawsuit now pending against Linux. The plot thickens... biz.yahoo.com Reuters UPDATE - SCO says revokes IBM license to use Unix Monday June 16, 4:09 pm ET SCO Group Inc. (NasdaqSC:SCOX - News) raised the stakes in its lawsuit against International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - News) on Monday by revoking the computer company's right to use and distribute software based on the Unix operating system, a move that was immediately challenged by IBM. Lindon, Utah-based SCO said that it decided to take action against IBM after the world's largest computer company failed to respond to a lawsuit before a Friday deadline, which claimed that IBM had illegally used parts of its Unix software in AIX, a version of Unix that IBM developed for its clients. IBM responded almost immediately, saying that SCO has no right to revoke its AIX software license. "As we have said all along our license is irrevocable, perpetual and cannot be terminated," IBM spokeswoman Trink Guarino said, reading from a prepared statement. SCO said that IBM violated its original agreement to license Unix technology by adapting some parts of AIX to Linux, the free version of Unix that can be copied an modified freely. IBM is also a major backer of Linux software. Unix is a widely-used operating system for networked computers that was first developed by AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - News) Various versions of Unix are now used to run corporate and government computer systems for serving up Web pages, accounting, manufacturing and storing information. SCO said that it is filing for a permanent injunction against IBM that requires them to "cease and desist all use and distribution of AIX" and to return all copies of Unix source code as part of an amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Utah. SCO sued IBM in March for $1 billion in damages for violating SCO's intellectual property rights because parts of its Unix software code are being used in the open-source Linux operating system. SCO also warned 1,500 other companies last month that they may be infringing on SCO's intellectual property rights for Unix...

To: cheryl williamson who wrote (54610)	6/16/2003 7:26:23 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Cheryl, It would be very interesting if a California politician tried to push through some kind of industry-backed regulation of Open Source/free software. It's probably pretty unlikely ever to happen, but if it did, it would create a rift between management and engineering in a lot of the tech companies including the large-cap leaders you mention. The managements might not mind the government shielding them from competition (they never do), but much of the donated R&D work on the software you object to comes from moonlighting by those managements' very own engineering staffs; and as you well know, a lot of those people, politically conservative or not, consider themselves mavericks and are extreeeeemely defensive about any attempt to obstruct or undermine the free software phenomenon. As you further well know, the suits in charge of these companies, no matter how many peripheral jobs they export to India, will always feel dependent on, and consider indispensable, the solid core of local higher-level engineering expertise in their employ. I suspect sparks would fly at the meeting where senior engineers "discussed" with management the prospect of their company supporting efforts to weaken Open Source. You're more directly involved in that culture than I am these days, so I would be interested in hearing your comments. But I doubt you're going to see any California politician initiate that kind of legislation at the behest of SV corporations (and definitely not Ed Zander). I mean, the SCOX suit is seen as essentially a variant of what you propose, only via the courts rather than the legislature, and SCOX has made themselves a pariah (see slashdot). Microsoft, who I'm sure agrees 100% with your position, can only support that effort with clandestine donations while maintaining credible deniability. Here's an example. Regards, --QS "Java Should Be Open-Source, Creator Says" Computerworld (06/13/03); Sliwa, Carol Sun Microsystems vice president and Java creator James Gosling says the strength of the developer community and the variety of interests behind Java are robust enough for Java to become open-source. "My personal feeling is that we're over the edge, but I also feel a little nervous about that," he says. Gosling admits that many people at Sun Microsystems would disagree with him, because of worries that Microsoft could fragment and weaken Java, leveraging its market strength to push through incompatible technology. Currently, Sun controls Java development through the Java Community Process (JCP), and is fostering Java-based open-source projects through the new Java.net online community and the Java Research License, which allows non-commercial development using Java's core. JCP program chair and Sun chief engineer Rob Gingell says internal debate over making Java open-source heightened in May among Sun field engineers who work with customers. However, the contentious issue in that discussion was more about open-source development style than intellectual property issues. Gosling also says Sun's new Project Rave Java development toolkit should make the programming language a more effective channel of creativity. Project Rave tools make it easy for low-end programmers to code in Java while ensuring their work has the necessary hooks and framework for expansion. Gosling, who unveiled the programming language eight years ago, says it's only within the last year that he began to believe that Java could survive as an open-source platform, but he admits that he's not always convinced that he's right.

To: cheryl williamson who wrote (54610)	6/17/2003 12:18:50 AM
From: Dinesh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

I thought we were talking freeware, not shareware. Shareware isn't necessarily free as you might already know. Anyhow, why wait for Ed Zander or anyone else? I mean, this is a free country. If you feel strongly enough, there is democratic process open to all to take their views to the public -- as a candidate or simply as a ballot item. Is it that you don't have much faith in the democratic process either? That aside, it still unclear why you think "That practice must cease". If you were to ask me, I'd say that people should be free to do as they please as long as they don't stay within this side of the law. Shareware AFAIK doesn't break any law. What we need is someone like Ed Zander to run for congress and introduce legislation that would stop shareware in its tracks. I KNOW for a fact that MSFT, IBM, HP & SUN would all be behind the concept. I must confess that I don't have access to such knowledge. However, even if these companies were in favor of what you propose, it would still sound like protectionism. I am more in favor of the competetive way. Coming back to SUNW.O, I am unsure if these alone would be good enough to propose taking a long position in SUNW stock. -d