Yep, I'm sure that there is a fine line between wanting to get real facts and trying to make juicy, popular writings but this article is just absurd.
Normally I would peg it as being FUD but I think the author is just trying to attract as many "clicks" towards his article and bank on that.
Well... let one thing be clear : Sun held out for years before they opened Solaris precisely because of these rights that Novel has so it would be very quaint if things wouldnt be "cleared".


Sun purchased SVR4.0 from Novell around 1993 for 83 million dollars for a perpetual license, and SCO purchased SVR4.2 from Novell around 1995. So basically I believe Sun does not have to pay Novell for Open Solaris.

Lewis Mettler?!?!?!? Oh, *MAN* that takes me back!

He used to post absolutely frothing rantings on C/ZDNet back in the 90s! Old "Cut'n'Paste" Mettler we used to call him! I believe he got banned from the C/ZDNet properties eventually for spamming everyone with his nonsense.

Those were *GOOD* times...but I'm not sure I'd put any credibility to his opinions.

Implied in this is that Novell could choose to "damage" Sun and Solaris via OpenSolaris, which I think would be a tragedy on a scale nearly equal to what SCO tried to pull off. Should Novell make this situation nasty, that tack combined with their MS deal would make them the #2 overall Unix enemy (if not #1), right there with SCO, IMHO.