October 19, 2009 5:36 PM
Farewell Darl McBride ... gone but not missed
No-one derives pleasure from seeing someone lose a job but there must have been a few smiles around the software community when it was reported that SCO president and CEO Darl McBride had got the boot from SCO.
The news came as the company put out a statement saying that it had eliminated the positions of CEO and president and, rather alarmingly, had "eliminated Darl McBride".
That make it sound like the erstwhile executive is currently buried deep in an underpass somewhere - which is rather what many open source enthusiasts would like to have seen happen.
Remember, this is the man who made the direst of threats against Linux users, warning of an RIAA-style campaign against anyone who had dabbled in open source code. His threats came to nothing of course, all too often he resembled a modern-day King Lear railing against unseen forces and make vague and terrible threats against Linux users, even if he couldn't quite articulate them "What they are, yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the earth," as Lear raged in his delirium.
SCO has long been since run into the ground. Its cash has been squandered on legal fees (and of course McBride's large salary) and now, in the midst of Chapter 11 protection, it lives on, pinning all its hopes on the resurrection of its legal case.
But this decision is yet another step in a long-running legal battle. The company has faced lots of criticism in the past and plenty of people have had McBride in their sights - the wonder of it, as Kent says of Lear, is that he survived so long.
Now, he's gone with a sorry wreck of a company left behind him, few in the industry will mourn his departure an all-too expected one - those who live by the sword will, well, sooner or later face the sharp end themselves.
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