Once Linux's Biggest Enemy: Darl McBride Dies and Nobody Notices
38 points by marcodiego 4 days ago | 35 comments
  • h2odragon 4 days ago |
    I don't recall anyone talking about him as a person, in association wit "SCO lawsuits". it was always the "SCO group" company that was reviled in the press.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes

    Remember Microsoft buying into the lawsuit on SCO's side?

    https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/fact-and-fiction-in-...

    • sam_lowry_ 4 days ago |
      Because everyone was afraid of defamation lawsuits while he was alife?
    • bediger4000 4 days ago |
      There was a widely read blog, groklaw, that singled out McBride personally as a driving source of the lawsuits. Groklaw appears to be gone, but there's a wikipedia article about it.
    • dagw 4 days ago |
      I clearly remember McBride being the 'face' of the lawsuits and his name being used interchangeably with SCO when discussing the lawsuit. Maybe not in the press, but definitely in blogs like Groklaw and various 'tech' forums.
    • wink 4 days ago |
      I remember the name, but before I read this I couldn't connect it to a specific event.

      Also maybe I took it lightly, or missed a bit, but I did not get project-threatening vibes back then.

  • raxxorraxor 4 days ago |
    Many don't remember SCO/TSG and their being as patent troll. An example of a non-constructive company that relies on possible legal loopholes.

    He probably could have contributed something positive but decided against it.

    Oracle now owns the remainder of it and espouses similar behavior. Perhaps its future is similar as well.

    They had a product palette with "open" in their product lineup:

    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group

    Strangely reminds me of open AI...

    • BSDobelix 4 days ago |
      >Oracle now owns the remainder of it and espouses similar behavior. Perhaps its future is similar as well.

      I think you talk about Sun Microsystems no?

      SCO still sells OpenServer5/6 and Unixware7

      BTW: Open in that time meant "open" to industry standards like TCP/IP same with openVMS

      • dagw 4 days ago |
        SCO still sells OpenServer5/6 and Unixware7

        SCO is gone. A company called Xinous bought OpenServer and UnixWare at the bankruptcy sale and are the ones now selling it.

        Although looking it their website it is clear that nothing in the software has been updated in years. They 'brag' about their latest features like Java 1.4, USB 2.0 Support for printers and IDE ATA-6 hard dive support (now supporting drives >128GB!). Also it seem like it's been a while since they looked over their licensing. Their 'small business' license is for computers with up to 1GB of RAM and their 'enterprise' server license supports servers with up to 32 logical cores and up to a mind boggling 16 GB of RAM.

        • BSDobelix 4 days ago |
          I get updates on my OpenServer6 via patchck.

          But SCO/Xinuos never belonged to Oracle, if anything "supported" by Microsoft.

          Since you are so pedantic about the name "SCO" it's:

          >>Support four to 32 processors

          >>With 64 GB of memory, you can support your applications and hardware (upto 32GB general purpose memory and above 32GB to be used for dynamically shared memory).

          >>Large file support. Get one terabyte of data to run your applications.

          >>Native SATA. Support Intel’s open Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) with native command queuing and hot plug support.

          https://www.xinuos.com/wp-content/uploads/Xinuos-Data-Sheet-...

          Where do you have your information's from?? Is the Internet Archive running again?

          Also MP1 from September 18, 2024:

          https://www.xinuos.com/kvm-support-update-pack-1-and-mainten...

          • dagw 4 days ago |
            Where do you have your information's from??

            I was apparently reading off the latest UnixWare marketing material.

            • BSDobelix 4 days ago |
              >I was apparently reading off the latest UnixWare marketing material.

              https://www.xinuos.com/wp-content/uploads/Xinuos-Data-Sheet-...

              >>Increased memory support. With 64 GB of memory, you can support powerful applications and hardware (upto 32GB general purpose memory and above 32GB to be used for dynamically shared memory)

              >>Utilize graphics, network, and HBA drivers, including Intel, LSI Logic and Qlogic HBA drivers

              So we have a bigger problem here then reading?

              • kjellsbells 4 days ago |
                It's uncharitable to respond so aggressively to the poster esp in the absence of evidence of bad faith.

                Just compare the UnixWare 7 data sheet to the release notes, both rooted at: https://www.xinuos.com/products/unixware-7/documentation/

                Data sheet: "Java support. Application developers can take advantage of the features in Java and users will have more applications available."

                Release note (dated Dec 2017, but the only one linked from above): in the packages section: "Java 2 SE 5.0 Software Development Kit" "(1.5.0.17)"

                (A reasonable reader would infer that the latest version of Java that Xinuos supplied was (1.5 aka) 5. Which would be pretty old even if you assume that they could not move to version twenty-something for license reasons.)

                • ruthmarx 3 days ago |
                  The user you are responding to seems to make a habit of being aggressive, especially in cases where he has been factually wrong but is unwilling to even consider the possibility.
                  • BSDobelix 3 days ago |
                    But ruth i am factually correct here, or do you have problems reading too? Do i have a new stalker with you now?
                    • ruthmarx 3 days ago |
                      > But ruth i am factually correct here, or do you have problems reading too?

                      Why do you think being factually correct is an excuse for your behavior?

                      It doesn't matter. Maybe you are, maybe you're not, but I've seen you in several discussions being flat out factually wrong and not listening to anyone who knows better gently trying to correct you, instead being outright aggressive to them and insulting them.

                      • BSDobelix 3 days ago |
                        >but I've seen you in several discussions being flat out factually wrong

                        I would say you are the person that is often factually wrong, like your sandbox irritation ;)

                        >not listening to anyone who knows better gently trying to correct you, instead being outright aggressive to them and insulting them.

                        Gaslighting 101

                        • ruthmarx 3 days ago |
                          > I would say you are the person that is often factually wrong, like your sandbox irritation ;)

                          lol, and what is it you think I'm factually wrong about in that friend? Can you even understand the discussion?

                          Most interactions I've had with you have had you being obstinate to learning or considering you could be wrong, like denying user mode drivers are a thing [1]

                          > Gaslighting 101

                          Pointing out aggressive behavior for what it is is not gaslighting. Grow up.

                          [1] https://doc.redox-os.org/book/drivers.html

    • no_wizard 4 days ago |
      Every time someone says Oracle will meet a fate worthy of their actions it never seems to materialize. Somehow they manage to produce strong revenue in todays environment and I really thought recession fear induced cost cutting would hurt them
      • lupusreal 4 days ago |
        Lawn mowers are good at what they do, even if the results are gory.
      • kreims 4 days ago |
        Never bet against a CIA spinoff.
    • kjellsbells 4 days ago |
      The scariest thing for me is how a really good company with a really good product can, through the intervention of boardroom lunatics, be converted to a trolling organization that tarnishes everything it touches. SCO OpenServer and UnixWare ran thousands of point of sale and restaurants and other types of set it and forget it use cases. They had good product well supported by a channel of VARs - people making a good living at it. To toss all that away was a disaster.

      And now, SCO tech lives on in a gray limbo netherworld, like OS/2 with Arca Noae: in one case because of trolling and the other because of the tides of history. Such a sad end.

    • bigfatkitten 2 days ago |
      Two different companies.

      The Santa Cruz Operation Inc (the original SCO) sold its UNIX assets to Caldera around 2001, pivoted to VDI and renamed itself to Tarantella, before being acquired by Sun, and in turn Oracle. The original SCO played no part in this.

      Caldera then renamed itself to The SCO Group, and then used SCO's good name in its shakedown.

  • ktm5j 4 days ago |
    I feel like this is kind of in poor taste..
  • dredmorbius 4 days ago |
    "I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."

    -- Misattributed to Mark Twain

    (Apparently a variant of a line by Clarence Darrow: <https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mark-twain-obituary-pleasu...>.)

  • moomin 4 days ago |
    Dude deserves to be forgotten. Pamela Jones deserves to be remembered.
    • briffle 4 days ago |
      I really miss GrokLaw.. PJ was great at covering legal cases.
  • gnu8 4 days ago |
    Did he ever end up saying what his true motivation was for disparaging Linux?
    • 7e 4 days ago |
      Doing his duty to shareholders is my guess.
  • kayo_20211030 4 days ago |
    It's strange it went unremarked. I remember the times, and I felt that SCO was all wrong; not evil, but wrong. But, ALS is a bad way to go, whoever you are.
  • mrweasel 4 days ago |
    Weird, I was looking him up online a few months ago, wondering what had happened to him, and the software he got from SCO (SmallFoot I think the name was).

    He was such a weird character at the time and the whole law suit seemed to be on everyone's mind, even if we didn't think SCO would ever win. Thinking about a person like this, going home in the evening and having dinner with the family always makes me wonder what motivates them. Well money, but surely he also believed that he was in the right?

    It's a little sad that this two-bit manager was ever placed in charge of SCO. He was pretty much responsible for breaking SCO and ruining the lives of so many of it's employees. I'd like to have had SCO around, it was a fascinating relic of a different era. Not that they would have survived long in any case.

    Still I'm also a little happy that he went out an did stuff afterwards.

  • alsetmusic 4 days ago |
    > Two weeks after the announcement, FOSS writer Maureen O’Gara, evidently working in cahoots with SCO, published an article in Linux Business News that identified PJ as Pamela Jones, and which contained unverified personal information about her, including a photo that was said to be of her home. Also published were the addresses and telephone numbers that purportedly belonged to Jones and her mother.

    I feel like this behavior would be widely condemned and a black eye today in a way that wasn't yet felt at the time. It's possible that a civil suit could have gained ground today. Personally, I'm glad SCO went to hell. May all patent trolls join them in time.

  • kstrauser 4 days ago |
    And nothing of value was lost.

    That loser (no really, he lost every case) set back the whole industry by several years when he tried to poison the reputation of Linux and Free Software. I shudder to imagine my career arc if he’d succeeded in destroying it.

    The most delicious part of the whole case was when Novell stepped in and mooted it by showing that they never actually sold their software to SCO, just the licensing rights.

    Youngsters here, this is also one of the reason so many of us absolutely detest Microsoft. They used SCO to try and destroy open source software legally instead of through offering better products: https://practical-tech.com/2003/05/21/cyber-cynic-the-micros...

    And there there was reporter Dan Lyons who was all-in supporting SCO and telling the world why Linux was going to come out the loser. Oopsie! He later claimed he was just too bad at his job to understand the situation (https://www.forbes.com/2007/09/19/software-linux-lawsuits-te...) To this day I close an article with his byline, assuming it’s also completely wrong.