SCO out, VMware in

Columnist Mark Gibbs says that among power networkers, VMware is in and SCO is out.

Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it.

– Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)

Picking the network vendor most quickly losing power is easy. That company would be SCO.

At one time a respected company, SCO launched itself down the path of self-destruction when it filed suit against IBM in March 2002. It alleged that IBM had “made concentrated efforts to improperly destroy the economic value of Unix, particularly Unix on Intel, to benefit IBM’s new Linux services business.” The lawsuit also charged IBM with “tortious interference, unfair competition and breach of contract.”

Now, more than three years later, we’re no closer to seeing this case resolved, as SCO still hasn’t shown the code it claims violates its intellectual property rights. What it’s done is spend a lot of money in creating a legal swamp that has effectively sucked in all rationality, leaving nothing more than hyperbole and hand waving behind.