COMMENTARY--The untimely demise of SCO Linux threw out our plans at the last minute. More importantly, though, will it affect your plans?

We thought we had it sorted out. A day before deadline, and it looked like the magazine was going to make it to the printers on time. Close enough, anyway. Then the e-mail came in: vendor withdraws product from sale. Generally not worth much attention, but in this case, it was devastating because the product in question was half of a head-to-head comparison in the magazine we were about to send.

No biggie. Products get withdrawn, renamed, updated, or changed all the time, and usually you can fudge it. Vendor x says it will shortly release a new version of product y which has such and such extra features. Something like that.

Only in this case, a little more complicated, because we had planned a comparison of business-focused Linux distributions. We picked the obvious choice: Red Hat's recently released Enterprise Server. And in the blue corner, we picked one of the UnitedLinux options--SCO Linux. Bad move.

We knew about SCO's lawsuit against IBM, of course, and figured it was an interesting issue, but purely academic. Then the day before the article was going off to print, SCO cranked things up a notch, sending out a letter warning enterprises that they could be sued for using Linux, which supposedly contains copyrighted code. And, of course, it withdrew SCO Linux from sale.

-It could have very big implications. Or by the time you read this, it could be as old as the Iraqi Information Minister Web site."

It quickly became apparent that no amount of fudging was going to salvage the review because it could be months if not years before SCO Linux was a viable product again. So we were stuck with half a review we couldn't use and six pages to fill.

Then it occurred to us: the SCO-IBM battle had now broadened to encompass the whole of Linux. It could have very big implications. Or by the time you read this, it could be as old as the Iraqi Information Minister Web site.

We took a punt that the story wouldn't go the way of Irena from Big Brother, so we replaced the review with a discussion of the lawsuit, SCO's claims, and how it's going to affect you, an IT worker in Australia. Fortunately, the industry was talkative. SCO's general manager was in the mood for a chat when we called, despite being in a meeting--and in New Zealand--at the time. Some local analysts got a word in, and even Red Hat phoned up to tell us they couldn't say much.

Now we're left with half an article--a good review of Red Hat Enterprise Server AS--waiting around for something to do. Chances are we'll find another Linux distribution with which to compare it in the coming month or two; SuSE looks like a good bet.

But the pickle we were left in is nothing compared to the problems SCO could theoretically cause if it can prove its accusations and starts enforcing its intellectual property rights. On the other hand, it may be no more effective in protecting its copyrights than the recording industry has been in preventing the spread of file-swapping software. Or SCO might run out of money or give up. Or IBM might decide it would be cheaper and easier to buy out SCO and gain ownership of the Unix source code--which some analysts are suggesting has been SCO's end game all along.

So... will all this uncertainty turn you off using Linux? Have you had inquiries from the CEO or demands to get rid of it? Or will it be--to overuse an already worn-out phrase--business as usual? Drop us a line and let us know what you think.

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