Just when you think the saga of SCO can't get any weirder, it does. The SCO Group announced in the last few days it was firing Darl McBride, but also "restructuring" and also "looking to raise additional funding and sell non-core assets to bolster working capital." To which I can only add: What non-core assets?

As usual, Groklaw has one of their very detailed summations and breakdowns of the ongoing drama. If nothing else it makes doubly plain that SCO's entire business model, front to back, is litigation. The fact that they still bill themselves as "a leading provider of UNIX® software technology" (note the trademark bug) inspires either hysterical laughter or sad shakes of the head.

McBride himself isn't taking this lying down; he claims his status as shareholder lets him have a stake in how the bankruptcy unfolds. A piece in the Salt Lake Tribune stated:

... he has the backing of around 50 percent of shareholders for what might turn out to be an alternative plan to exit bankruptcy that could include new investment, perhaps from Cerberus or others. "I'm putting together an alternative plan ... that will ultimately get SCO its day in court," he said.

Again, I have to wonder: What person with an even passing awareness of technology would throw money at SCO stock? I suspect the other shareholders are simply like-minded folks McBride has drafted in to snap up SCO shares and keep things going in his favor.

Without McBride, the company still has COO Jeff Hunsaker -- who perhaps was quibbling with McBride over details of execution or how many slices of the pie to divide up. Based on Groklaw's digging as linked above it would appear Hunsaker's planning to still try and use the old SCO Plan A: squeeze money out of people for running binary copies of UNIX -- such as AIX, as documented in the link. That, again, requires some proof that they have a legal right to do so.

Which leads us back to Novell. And during this whole time, Novell's version has been that the Santa Cruz Operation -- the folks SCO acquired, not SCO themselves to begin with -- did purchase certain things from Novell, mainly the right to use the UNIX and UnixWare trademarks under controlled circumstances (see page 12, section C), but with Novell holding the leash on all of them. Novell insists they never sold off a controlling stake in UNIX to anyone. Plus, Novell's feelings vis-a-vis Linux are plain: they develop it, support it, and provide legal indemnification for its users.

There's a part of me that can't wait for the Novell trial, which promises to be either very long or very, very short.

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