SCO – IBM Lawsuit Could Widen

By Bill Claybrook
http://aberdeen.com/ab_company/bios/claybrook.htm

June 24, 2003

IBM has software for its zSeries platforms that permits some Unix applications to run. This software, running in OS/390 and z/OS environments, has been around for several years. While it is not a huge revenue generator for IBM, it provides flexibility for zSeries users who want to run some Unix applications. This could be even more fuel for SCO in its lawsuit against IBM.

At this point in time, it is clear to me that IBM will not —and now cannot— settle the lawsuit out of court. And it has no intentions of buying SCO – another way out of this legal battle. So what is going to happen? As I have said earlier, it appears that there is no end in sight for this lawsuit – and we wonder now how it reached this degree of severity. Clearly someone is going to win. If SCO wins and Linux stumbles, then Microsoft is going to hold a big advantage in the market. If IBM wins, then Linux will take off among enterprises, and we will witness a big battle between Linux and Windows over the course of several years. Even if SCO gets a favorable ruling in the court, I believe it is going to be a big loser. . From my point of view, SCO is losing on the PR side. And, on the user side and as a product company, SCO is very limited.

4:31 ET

Copyright 2003