Just Another Tech Blog

Linux, with the help of GNU software, has risen to a point where it is a legitimate threat to the throne of Microsoft. Microsoft's only goal is to have a version of the Windows operating system on every desktop, in every portable device, in every appliance -- essentially every device with a computer chip -- all over the world. Anything short of that and their job is incomplete.

Meanwhile, SCO have just recently tried to take everyone who uses Linux, and their penguins, to court. Despite continued net losses in the millions every quarter, and declines in revenue, they continue to wage a futile war against Linux and Open Source.

There's a big corporate game being played, and every user of Linux, and every advocate of Open Source, watches events such as these unfold with great interest. The temerity of SCO was seen as a Microsoft plot by some, and as a complete waste of time and money by everyone else. Rumours of Microsoft's involvement with investment company BayStar go back to 2004, and BayStar have invested enough money into SCO to pull at least one third world country out of poverty. In a way, the Open Source community should be flattered that so much time, effort, and money is being pumped into squashing it. It goes to show how much of a threat it has really become. Or perhaps, rather, a perceived threat. But it also goes to show the complete lack of understanding of the culture of Open Source.

These early hackers, code wizards, uber-geeks, whatever you want to call them paved the way for the code hackers of today -- those guys who write software for free, just because they love doing it. The Eric S. Raymonds, the Linus Torvalds', the Alan Cox's, the Richard Stallmans, the Weitse Viennas, and the other countless hordes who code free software. They give their source code away for free so that others can improve on what has already been done, and so that others may learn from it.

Coders are always going to write free software. No matter who doesn't like it.