Microsoft and SCO

For the past year or so, [SCO](http://www.sco.com/)  has been hassling Linux users and companies, creating more Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) than Microsoft could have – as well as creating a bit of a distraction to Linux leader types, taking up their time. Time that could have been spent making Linux better. When this whole thing started, I had a hunch that Microsoft was behind it, as SCO’s tactics sounded awfully familiar.

Happily, lawyers and law experts working in the open source community organised themselves and provided advice. I think that’s something that SCO and Microsoft didn’t count on: legal people who had been using Linux for years now felt that they could contribute to the cause, and help the programmers who had given them the software.

Anyway, the dots have now been connected. > So, we discovered on Thursday that Microsoft talked to BayStar Capital on SCO’s behalf months before the investment house brokered a deal that led to SCO getting a cool $50 million round of funding. Well, well, well.

And recently, when SCO finally announced a real, live customer for its Linux IP license, it turned out that the company, EV1Servers.Net, is promoting Windows Server 2003 over Linux for its customers and is featured in a case study showing how Windows is better than Linux at Microsoft’s Get the Facts Web site.