SCO’s Linux Claims Are Dead — Long Live Linux! August 13, 2007
Posted by Maddog in Technology Issues, open source.add a comment
Some questionable endeavors deserve to fail. Some are so dastardly that they deserve to fail in a spectacular manner — with disastrous consequences for those engaged in it. SCO’s anti-Linux lawsuits against Novell and IBM fall into the latter category. Not only is it right for SCO’s claims to be dismissed, SCO should be made to pay dearly for its outrageous attempts to act as the attack dog.
Happily, that’s what seems to be happening. Last Friday, in “Court Rules: Novell owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights! Novell has right to waive!”, Groklaw reported that U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball ruled that Novell owns the intellectual property (IP) for Unix, effectively obliterating SCO’s claims not only against Novell but also against IBM. Computerworld also reported the story in “Novell wins rights to Unix copyrights.”
Is IPv6 In Your Future? May 31, 2007
Posted by Maddog in Technology Issues.add a comment
Early last month, the Board of Trustees of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) issued a resolution that would strongly encourage the use of IPv6 addresses. The resolution would also effectively make it more difficult to obtain new addresses from the dwindling IPv4 address pool.
Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6, is the new underlying data transport infrastructure for the Internet. The current protocol, known as IPv4, is over 30 years old and can only support around 4.3 billion addresses. Now while that may sound like a lot, it is not anywhere enough for the many new online devices (such as Internet-capable mobile phones and PDAs) and applications (such as IPTV or Internet television) that will be flooding the online world in the near future. The number of addresses supported by IPv6, on the other hand, is around 2 to the 128th power. That is an unimaginably huge number and more than enough to fuel the Internet for perhaps the next hundred years.
Scare Tactics and Hypocrisy From Redmond May 28, 2007
Posted by Maddog in Technology Issues.add a comment
With known thieves, vigilante coddlers, and human rights violators emerging as winners in the recent elections, it would seem that hypocrisy has again been affirmed as an established feature of Philippine politics. Unfortunately, that’s not the only arena where such underhandedness occurs. Microsoft’s recent claim in a Fortune magazine article that various open source programs violate 235 of its patents is every bit as hypocritical, and may even work in Microsoft’s favor — but not for long.
Should we believe Microsoft and avoid open source software alternatives because of alleged legal liabilities? Let’s examine the facts surrounding the issue.
