Novell offers absolution to IBM in SCO spat

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Re: One thing I find curious is, why?

Unlike some of the children here, I will actually respond to you post.

"I mean it doesn't appear that IBM needs to be "absolved" so why give the impression that they do?"

There is another explaination here. Novell, if I am reading the available material correctly, really only allowed SCO to sell licenses and keep about 5% of those profits. In addition, they retained all kinds of rights to oversee and even modify any agreement SCO entered into. I can definately see Novell making a move like this to prove that they have not abdicated any of these rights regardless of the impact to IBM. SCO's claims, if taken seriously, could seriously undermine the authority Novell attempted to keep for themselves in the original agreement.


"A skeptic might say a few million "investment" was very cheap when compared to 1, 3, and now 5 billion dollars."

The reality is that IBM has done more with SUSE than any other Linux distobution. Investing in the new merger to keep that partnership alive is not an inconsequential consideration. I believe that only an NBMer would make the argument you hypothisize. I also believe that only an NBMer would make the same argument against MS if the shoes were revesed. The extreme fringe always yells the loudest. We give creedance only to our detriment in many cases.

"...all I am saying is that IBM is not the knight on white horse many make them out to be."

I agree. Companies do what is best for themselves. Consumers only come into play in the furtherance of those goals.

"Right now it looks a lot like they are using their financial clout to buy around the problems. At least to the average guy, or maybe even an old sceptic. As I said, I find it curious Novell and IBM made this move (at this time) and even opened the door on the possible issues it generates."

The falicy of this argument is that you assume IBM collusion when there is yet to be any evidence of it. Many of your points are thoughtful and insightful right up until the final leap where you jump to an unsupported conclussion. This is one of those cases. Novell made this move. There is no evidence that IBM bought it with the $50 million investment or even had prior knowledge, let alone gave direction.

In short, I appreciated the first two paragrahs of your post as I saw them as thoughtful and reasonable, even though I disagree. The third paragraph, while starting with a very resonable statement, leads to a completely unsupported ledge.

Posted by: Mack DaNife   Posted on: 02/13/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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