Open Season on Open Source?

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

The Hungry Profiteer commented:
| Let's cut to the chase -
|
| Rock, Hard Place, Mountain of Paper: all they'll remember is "Linux" and
| "Lawsuit".

Well, there have already been a few business-media  comments  to  the
effect  that  "No  publicity  is  bad  publicity",  and that a lot of
business people are already reacting very differently. The suggestion
is  that  an alternate reaction, especially from upper management, is
"If all those companies are trying so hard to squash linux,  it  must
be really good. Nobody would waste company resources on such a battle
without good reason, and the reason has to be that they can't compete
on quality or capability."

I can see the ad campaign: "Why are all those big guys trying so hard
to  threaten  linux and its users?  It's because they know they can't
match its capabilities in the open market. Learn all about it and try
it yourself for free at ....  If you like it, we'll help you convert,
we'll set up your training program, and we'll provide all the support
you  need until you can go it alone." This is, of course, basically a
summary of RedHat's sales pitch.  We might soon be hearing a lot more
of this sort of PR.

What is really needed is even more media coverage,  making  it  clear
just  why not just SCO, but their backers at Microsoft, are trying to
do.