SCO’s version of history

The open-source world is abuzz about The SCO Group’s lawsuit against IBM. SCO alleges that Big Blue has incorporated SCO’s intellectual property surrounding Unix into its Linux efforts. The SCO Group, formerly Caldera Systems, acquired Santa Cruz Operation back in the summer of 2000.

The SCO Group’s complaint (www.sco.com/scosource) makes for interesting reading. It includes sweeping statements such as, “It is not possible for Linux to rapidly reach Unix performance standards for complete enterprise functionality without the misappropriation of Unix code, methods, or concepts to achieve such performance, and coordination by a larger developer, such as IBM.”

Gee, if I were SGI with its massive Linux-based Altrix 3000 machine, I’d be concerned about this statement, because the machine’s extreme performance apparently can only be explained by “misappropriation” of Unix technology.

One charge The SCO Group makes against Big Blue centers around Project Monterey. Monterey made news in October 1998 when IBM, Santa Cruz Operation, and Sequent announced that they were joining forces to create a version of Unix for Intel’s new 64-bit architecture. The SCO Group alleges that when IBM pulled out of Monterey in May 2001, it took the intellectual property the Santa Cruz Operation shared during the project and applied it to Linux, thus boosting Big Blue’s new Linux business thrust while damaging the overall value of Unix.

To support this accusation, The SCO Group offers a historical framework that seems peculiar at times. In particular, the complaint implies that before IBM became involved, Linux “posed little or no threat to SCO, or to other Unix vendors.” From what I can tell, IBM’s significant contributions to Linux did not begin until around the beginning of 2001 when the corporation announced its intention to invest $1 billion in Linux development.

But if Linux posed little or no threat to SCO until around the close of 2000, why did Santa Cruz Operation agree to sell off the valuable Unix intellectual property to Caldera in the summer of 2000 for a reported $7 million cash plus minority interest in Caldera? Most companies with a strong business situation aren’t anxious to trade the crown jewels for a few beads and a piece of a company that isn’t even close to winning its market segment.

The “no threat” assertion is even more peculiar when one recalls that, way back in 1999, Doug Michels, then CEO of Santa Cruz Operations, made headlines by attacking Red Hat’s contention that Linux was superior to SCO Unix. Reading those articles, it’s clear that Linux was already horning in on SCO’s game.

The recently-defunct periodical Red Herring even interviewed Michels that summer and asked him how his company would face competition from Linux. The article goes on to quote an anonymous SCO reseller as saying, “Of course my customers are asking about Linux.” It seems that even in 1999, before IBM was doing anything serious with open source, Linux already was already a business competitor to SCO Unix.

SCO had better hope that its claims against IBM are better than its recollection of recent history.