Monday, September 22, 2003		Feature

THE decisive and technically intricate battle going on for sometime between one of the biggest and oldest company in computer industry and a small $ 300 million company known for possessing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to the most famous and successfully running, commercial network operating system (Unix) has attracted the attention of all now.

Yes, this is about the lawsuit going on between IBM and SCO group. People ask why this legal battle is being given so much importance. In a few words, the answer is that the fate of many software and hardware (particularly embedded systems) development companies who have been using or are planning to use Linux as the kernel (heart/ base) in their product, will be affected by the judgment of this lawsuit.

The day Linux became a famous name in operating system arena, many companies in these IT slump days started trying their hands on Linux either as cost-cutting measure or as a new platform to migrate to. The day when IBM decided to jump in this rush, one could easily comprehend the impact Linux was having on the industry.

If one could see it from different perspective the Linux revolution started out as small project taken up by group of college grads sitting in different parts of the world to develop an operating system right from scratch but based on the blue print of famous Unix operating system. This doesn’t mean that they were not original or creative persons; on the contrary they were the most original developers at that time. But they neither started nor joined the league of developers for some commercial gains but for the pleasure of developing something they could cherish developing and passing on as a legacy for the coming wave of enthusiastic developers to add on to the project. This with the passage of time has become a bigger and stronger OS of strength equal to the proportions of Unix.

The ideology behind Linux was freedom. But the very day this marvel was being analysed by big names like IBM one could easily visualise Linux being explored or rather exploited by these firms for their own commercial gains. From a programmers’ point of view, SCO is taking a genuine and legitimate step in filing a lawsuit against IBM to protect its flagship product Unix. This is not a comment from technicalities of law regarding IPR but rather from the viewpoint of a young developer. Something that was never meant nor started for commercial gains should not be introduced, adopted or adapted to become a commercial operating system.