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RSS feedsSCO Group president and chief executive Darl McBride has insisted that the company will win its legal battles, and its Unix products have a strong future.
Speaking at the SCO Forum 2004 in Las Vegas, McBride said that SCO is about half way through its lawsuit - and expects to win.
He reiterated SCO's claim that IBM contributed Unix-derivative code to Linux in violation of its agreements with SCO.
"We fundamentally believe we have truth on our side and that has us looking forward to a bright future. We did not start this fight but we are going to finish it. I may be wrong, but I doubt it," said McBride.
He added that the decision to take legal action was still right. "If I had to take the decision 10 times I would make the same decision every time," he stated.
From the versions of AIX and Dynix that SCO has received from IBM so far as part of the court case, McBride said that SCO had identified 21,000 lines of code that IBM had allegedly contributed to Linux.
McBride claimed that only five per cent of SCO's employees are involved in the legal effort, and that the rest are focused on the Unix products which remain strong.
"We can promise that we will defend Unix and continue to see that it has a bright future. Part of the fear, uncertainty and doubt out there is that Unix is going to die. It is not going to die," said McBride.
"Big Blue is a formidable opponent, but we still expect to win. We plan to be the one standing after 15 rounds."
If SCO does win its legal battles it will reinvest in its products and resellers, according to McBride.
"There is a loyal set of customers and resellers pushing SCO Unix today. That is our starting point," he said.
"As we get a courtroom victory and significant damages, and if we take our developer expertise and our relationships and our commitment, then we have a different ballgame and we can build on that."
McBride predicted that SCO's legal battles will be the first of a number fought by software companies over intellectual property.
"We are just at the forefront of a big battle that is going on. There will be more to come and big software companies will be out there fighting," he said.
See also:
Vendor claims two customers so far, and more to follow 05 Aug 2004
Linux licence to come with OpenServer and UnixWare operating systems 05 Aug 2004Losing IBM lawsuit would not destroy the company, claims SCO 04 Aug 2004OpenServer and UnixWare to share same kernel for 32- and 64-bit computing 04 Aug 2004In the middle of its legal battles with IBM, SCO is out to prove that it's business as usual 04 Aug 2004Marketplace initiative 'would do for software what Apple has done for music' 04 Aug 2004New initiative invites developers to bid for work related to SCO products 03 Aug 2004
The $3bn lawsuit brought by the SCO Group against IBM will have repercussions for all IT vendors, as well as their users. 01 Jul 2003All Operating Systems
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