I was pondering whilst in the car today and thought I’d write this down before forgetting it forever.

Before I say why I think Open Source is good for you (and your business) I want to make it clear that I don’t intend to harp on about the usual:

• It’s either free or fairly priced (although it is)
• It’s more secure (although it almost certainly is)
• It’s more reliable (although, from experience I’d say that is generally true)
• It doesn’t lock you in to single vendor’s solution (although that is actually correct)
• It supports Open Standards so you retain control of your data (but that is also true)

No, Open Source is good for you because it is good for everyone…

• It’s much more kind to our environment
  • Few large global corporations flying thousands of overpaid salesmen and marketing types to more grand launches/lunches and meetings etc etc etc O.K. Someone like IBM might but not very much
  • Almost zero use of PAPER and other raw materials.
• It builds communities without borders.
  • Global interaction of like-minded individuals who really CARE about what they do and why they do it.
• It makes products that actually work!
• It makes products that do what WE want rather than the Marketing department of BullyBoySoft Inc.
• It enables true Darwinian product evolution.
• It offers more than just a product or technology solution - it offers a platform for learning and development simply by being Open.

Any takers????

Tell Someone Else!

“May we live in interesting times…”

On Friday last, the judge in the extraordinarily long court case brought by SCO (The SCO Group Inc. formerly the Santa Cruz Operation) against Novell gave his judgement. SCO lost.

The basics of the case, which is both complex and long-winded as only the American legal system can, was that SCO claimed they owned the copyright for UNIX and that Novell didn’t. The implications of this fairly simple claim went much deeper however. If SCO had won it could have opened the door for massive litigation against IBM and other vendors of UNIX and also had serious implications for Linux as they also claimed that Linux contained copyrighted UNIX code…

And more succinctly put by the Washington Post…

Software company Novell owns the copyrights covering the Unix computer operating system, a federal judge ruled, deciding against the company that bought certain rights to Unix from Novell 12 years ago. “The bill of sale is clear: all copyrights were excluded from the transfer,” U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball wrote in his 102-page ruling. SCO Group Inc. is seeking billions of dollars in royalty payments from hundreds of companies that use the Linux computer operating system, which is modelled on Unix. The ruling means SCO probably cannot successfully sue Linux users for copyright violations.

The ruling given last week should now clear the way for the legally challenged/scared corporations of the US to use OSS/Linux with much less fear about potential law suits. This can only increase the pace of growth and adoption of these disruptive technologies.

Here’s my Recommended Reading list for this story.

• Groklaw - This is where the in-depth coverage all started and remains,
• Dana Gardner - Good summing up
• The Inquirer - Clear overview of implications
• New York Times - Brief, clear, articulate
• Novell’s PR Blog - Short but sweet!

Well - this looks like the main legal barriers for adoption of Linux (especially in the USA) have been removed, the SCO v IBM lawsuit is groundless and SCO will probably go bust as they will have some very BIG bills to pay.

Following note added 20:30pm (15:30 EDT) 13/08/2007:

Just before the USA markets closed I thought I’d see what the investors made of the judge’s decision. Not good. SCO (NASDAQ: SCOX) was down by a whopping 73% from $1.56 on the close Friday. It opened this morning at 0.45c and dipped during trading to a low of $0.35. Ouch….

Tell Someone Else!