Open Source Journal on Ulitzer

It's been six years, tens of millions of dollars and untold legal delays since SCO first sued IBM for poaching Unix code and putting it in Linux, and without the starch in its collar that its ousted CEO Darl McBride evidently supplied it sounds like it's folding like a basket of limp washing.

The day after McBride was fired, the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit cleared SCO's way to the long-sought jury trial on whether SCO or Novell owns Unix that it wants, but rather than race down to the Salt Lake City courthouse to get on the docket, the company tells the Salt Lake Tribune that it's "considering the next steps in the appeals process."

The 10^th Circuit, as predicted, threw out Novell's bid for an en banc rehearing of its August 24 decision overturning the summary judgment awarding ownership of Unix to Novell and ordering the case to be heard by a jury - a trial scheduled to be heard under a new judge.

Now what do you suppose it's worth to Novell and IBM for that case not to go to trial?

SCO is now being run by a trustee reportedly picked from the list of candidates Novell submitted.