Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Slashdot | SCO Fires back, Subpoenas Stallman, Torvalds et al

SCO Fires back, Subpoenas Stallman, Torvalds et al
Caldera
GNU is Not Unix
The Courts
Businesses
News
Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 12, @04:12PM
from the subpoenas-envy dept.
SirFozzie writes "SCO has just, within the past hour, announced that they have fired back against IBM's legal broadside, with one of their own, filing subpoenas against several of the biggest names in Linux. SCO filed subpoenas with the U.S. District Court in Utah, targeting six different individuals or organizations. Those include Novell; Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel; Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation; Stewart Cohen, chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs; and John Horsley, general counsel of Transmeta."


9:33:06 PM    

Microsoft Proclaims Death of Free Software Model

Microsoft Proclaims Death of Free Software Model
Microsoft
GNU is Not Unix
Technology/IT
Security
Businesses
News
Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 12, @03:28PM
from the faint-praise-and-damnation dept.
geoff313 writes " As previously mentioned here, Microsoft's new wave of FUD has begun to arrive. This time it is courtesy of Bradley Tipp, Microsoft's UK national systems engineer, who spoke at the Microsoft IT Forum in Copenhagen. In this article from ZDNet UK, he is quoted as saying that 'Linux is great' and 'there are a lot of things we should learn from open source' but then is quick to point out that 'We haven't talked to a single user who has said they're using [open source] because it's better.' Another Microsoft employee was quoted as saying 'At least if Linux takes off, their viruses will propagate and we won't be seen as the bad guys any more.' I for one am happy to see that they are taking their new interest in security seriously, and I'm sure you all are too. Most interesting is the assertion that the decision by Red Hat to end support for its free distribution and Novell's aquisition of SUSE marks not only the death of free software, but actually is a validation of Microsoft's business model. Does anyone besides Microsoft see these events as the end of Free software?" I use Free software because it's better; they just didn't ask.

 [Slashdot]


4:19:32 PM    

Security FUD On Linux 

Security FUD On Linux
Microsoft
Linux
Technology/IT
Security
Software
Businesses
Posted by Hemos on Tuesday November 11, @02:38PM
from the throwing-it-around dept.
bobmatnyc writes "InfoWorld reports that Microsoft is planning an "security assault on Linux" by hyping results of a commissioned study pointing to the number of security holes in Linux vs. Windows, the number of days it takes to fill the patches, and by raising questions as to the reliability of code submitted throught the OS process. I suppose if they focus very narrowly on one measurement of security, completely ignore script-level vulnerabilities, default settings vulnerabilities (such as root access for all users), and the demographics of the user population, as well as a zillion other things I'm not clever enough to think of off the top of my head, they may have a point. "

[Slashdot]


1:08:48 PM    

Microsoft patches three critical security problems. Microsoft announced patches for three "critical" security problems and a fourth labeled "important" in its second monthly summary of security bulletins aimed at making it easier for its customers to staying on top of patch releases. [Computerworld News]
1:03:09 PM    

PTO Director Orders Re-Exam for '906 Patent. The Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office has responded to the W3C request for a re-exam of the '906 patent and said that "a substantial new question of patentability is raised."... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
1:01:34 PM