Norbert on Nostr: Darl McBride has died. He led SCO Group's legal attacks on Linux in the early 2000s, ...
Darl McBride has died. He led SCO Group's legal attacks on Linux in the early 2000s, where they falsely claimed copyright ownership of Linux. Had he prevailed, the open source landscape might look very different today.
His claims were comically nonsensical, and memorably he claimed to have a suitcase full of irrefutable proof. Still, he had to be reckoned with because he had a richly funded war chest. The legal battles went on for years.
Does any of this sound familiar? Yes, I see a ton of parallels to Faketoshi. The only difference is that McBride did not have a cult of personality; he was utterly uncharismatic and nobody seemed to root for him.
Back then, I was glued to GrokLaw, a blog by a writer who called herself PJ. She covered the SCO saga in close detail and I soaked up every word. I loved Linux and free software and it all seemed like an existential battle, which I still believe it was.
Like Faketoshi will, McBride became utterly irrelevant after his legal attacks failed. In 2020, he filed for personal bankruptcy. Last week, he lost his life to ALS at 64 years old. While I'll always remember him as an enemy of freedom, nobody deserves that illness. RIP Darl McBride.
His claims were comically nonsensical, and memorably he claimed to have a suitcase full of irrefutable proof. Still, he had to be reckoned with because he had a richly funded war chest. The legal battles went on for years.
Does any of this sound familiar? Yes, I see a ton of parallels to Faketoshi. The only difference is that McBride did not have a cult of personality; he was utterly uncharismatic and nobody seemed to root for him.
Back then, I was glued to GrokLaw, a blog by a writer who called herself PJ. She covered the SCO saga in close detail and I soaked up every word. I loved Linux and free software and it all seemed like an existential battle, which I still believe it was.
Like Faketoshi will, McBride became utterly irrelevant after his legal attacks failed. In 2020, he filed for personal bankruptcy. Last week, he lost his life to ALS at 64 years old. While I'll always remember him as an enemy of freedom, nobody deserves that illness. RIP Darl McBride.