[TUHS] My response to SCO vs. Linux

[Peter Jeremy]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2003 at 09:55:17PM -0700, Carl Lowenstein wrote:
>> From: "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" <grog at lemis.com>
>> On Thursday, 12 June 2003 at 11:31:52 +0000, zmkm zmkm wrote:
>> > Good old dear BSD , where is it ?? still fighting a niche turf , why
>> > it didn?t burst in the open ?
>> 
>> Glad you asked.  It was the victim of a law suit ten years ago.  Don't
>> underestimate what the current legal challenges can do to Linux.
>In case you are referring to the BSD vs. AT&T suit, BSD won.

But BSD basically stagnated during the suit - which took 2-3 years.
No-one wanted to have anything to do with BSD whilst the suit was
on and it took a while to recover.  Linux was unaffected and basically
gained 3-4 years headstart.

What Greg is suggesting is that if something equivalent comes along
for Linux (and I don't believe the SCO case is it), it will put a
really serious dent in its growth.  Even if Linux won, the after-effect
will last for years.

Peter