Launch of BadPenguins.com

April 28 2004

BadPenguin1

On March 6th, 2003 a dismally failing software company named Caldera Systems Inc (d/b/a The SCO Group) implemented a business model that resembles the extortion rackets of the mafia along with the public relations model championed by the Iraqi Information Minister. The SCO Group launched this business model with a lawsuit against IBM in the US District Court of Utah. This lawsuit started as a $1 billion claim against IBM for alleged trade secret violations and has subsequently morphed into an all out global war between The SCO Group, anyone who has done business with them, several multi-national corporations, governments all over the world, and a world wide community of software developers/users.

Along their path of extortion jihad the SCO Group has attempted to foist profoundly ludicrous claims upon an ill informed public that make the Iraqi Information Minister resemble Honest Abe by comparison. Among the more outrageous public assertions made by the SCO Information Ministers are the claims that the open source community includes terrorists, is made up of communists, and that open source software is a threat to the national security of the United States.

The amusing aspect of this mafia-like SCO business plan is that the SCO Information Ministers have managed to slander a unique world wide community of extremely bright, creative, and dedicated geniuses. As a response to the brilliant execution of the new SCO business plan, online cottage communities have formed with a focus on debunking the slander and misinformation coming out of the SCO Information Ministry. Most of these web sites focus on very technical aspects such as the legal (Groklaw, tuxrocks) and financial (yahoo board).

This is where BadPenguins.com enters the picture. First of all we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Darl McBride for providing us with the inspiration behind our name. Darl has labeled linux/gnu/open source users and developers as terrorists, communists, and a threat to national security. In other words, we are bad penguins (the mascot of Linux is Tux - a penguin)! Bad, as in naughty bad, go to your room you are grounded bad. In addition to being bad penguins, we are mad penguins. Pissed off mad, being slandered, libeled, extorted, threatened, and taken for idiots mad.

What do bad penguins do when libeled, slandered, and threatened by incompetent corporate executives executing idiotic business plans? Leer, squawk loudly, and flap their stubby little wings in a most threatening manner? Heck if we know. What we intend to do is inform the non-technical public about the issues. When Grandma wants to know why her little grandson Skippy has been labeled a terrorist, we want her to know how utterly ridiculous that is. We are going to defend ourselves against ludicrous public statements by the SCO Information Ministry with the ridicule and contempt that they deserve.

04:09 PM