MacEdition Pro News : July 22, 2003
Something new in the ProNews space
by MacEdition Staff (feedback)
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In this issue
- Pro News has just been sleeping
- SCO Registers Unix copyrights
- Californians rejoice as Microsoft promises to buy cash-strapped state
Pro News has just been sleeping
As you might have noticed, ProNews has been absent for a bit. We’ve let it (and its overworked editor) have a brief respite while the dust settles on our latest news offering, Breakers.
In Breakers you’ll find many of the quality references, press releases, software updates, and general tidbits you used to find in ProNews, but much more quickly. Want to find just today’s news headlines? Want to filter by category? Want to sort your news headlines your way? Head on over to the Breakers. Sort. Filter. Read. Know.
ProNews isn’t going away, though. No, it is returning more to its roots, providing a bit of commentary on the stories that deserve it, taking advantage of an expanded space to fill the gap between headlines (Breakers) and full-blown analysis articles.
SCO Registers Unix copyrights
SCO announced that registrations for Unix System V source code had been received by the company. Coincident with that announcement, SCO also announced new licensing covering “run-time, binary use of Linux for all commercial users of Linux based on kernel version 2.4.x and later”. The company claims that it will hold harmless commercial Linux customers that purchase a UnixWare license against any past copyright violations, and for any future use of Linux in a run-only, binary format.
At this point, it’s worth remembering that SCO’s lawsuit against IBM has not been resolved yet, and the last attempt to attack Linux by the company resulted in a German restraining order against doing so. (Note, too, that the German SCO website referenced in the 4-June story is still unavailable as of 21-July.) It seems the shakedown continues.
Even if SCO has a case (which has yet to be determined), the company is certainly making itself no friends in the industry.
Californians rejoice as Microsoft promises to buy cash-strapped state
Well, maybe not. But San Francisco Superior Court Judge Paul Alvarado did give preliminary approval to a $1.1 billion settlement deal of anti-trust accusations in California (the same deal that was modified after Apple complained).
It’s nice to see that after the Feds caved in, something can be done to punish Microsoft for what was proven in Federal court to be illegal, monopolistic behaviors. Sure, with $49 billion in the bank, a billion here and a billion there may not matter to the software giant, but it is something.
Given this from the linked C|Net article:
Two-thirds of the unclaimed money will go to California public schools in a mix of donated Microsoft software and cash grants. Although the maximum value of the settlement is $1.1 billion, Microsoft could end up paying as little as $367 million in cash, which is what it would owe to California public schools if no vouchers are claimed. If all vouchers are claimed, Microsoft would be required to pay the maximum, but schools would then get nothing.
Is it time to start encouraging consumers to donate their vouchers to the California school system?
Looking for old ProNews segments? Check out our index at http://old.macedition.com/news/. Do you have news releases or tidbits of interest to the Macintosh professional? Send them to pronewsnotes@macedition.com.