SCO and filePro

[Fairlight]

Only Tyler would say something like:
> I'm curious.  I know filePro licenses are non-transferable between
> OS's (why, I don't understand).  However, given that their former
> partner SCO has declared bankruptcy and is possibly going under in the
> future, does anyone think that perhaps fpTech will be offering help to
> people wanting to migrate away from a dead/dying OS?  Or will they
> simply say 'meh, not our problem'?

Oh, I don't think it'd be, "Meh, not our problem." 

I think it'd be a case of seeing an opportunity to take advantage of.  They
have a long-standing policy of payed platform migration to back them up.
One platform -may- go *poof*.  Smart money says that anyone in a position
to make a profit from it that has a pre-made alibi saying, "But this has
-always- been our policy!" will jump immediately behind that wheel and
drive it as hard and fast and long as they can to their benefit.

Declaring Chapter 11 isn't a surefire death knell, anyway.  I'm certainly
far from the more financially knowledgeable here, and I wouldn't conclude
that the OSes are definitively going into the great /dev/null in the sky
(although I personally wouldn't shed a tear).

But while I doubt there'll be any official statement for some time (if
ever, even if SCO vanishes entirely), I think it's a fairly safe bet that
one can plan on paying to migrate.  They might discount the migration fee a
bit for that particular case, but I can't see anyone sane with a pre-made
excuse actually giving up that potential revenue.  It may be a good thing
to do, but I wouldn't bank on it happening.

<shameless_plug> 
FWIW, OneGate users don't have that problem for the OneGate side of the
equation (ie., if they use OG for their web-enabling of fP), if anyone was
considering fPcgi vs OneGate.  I 'license' by the server, not by OS, for
all my software.  License being a loose term for "I got paid per server it
runs on", since I don't enforce it in any functional way.  Let's just say I
believe in respecting and trusting my customers.  If one feels they need to
burn me that badly, they need it more than I do, probably.  But seriously,
you could hop from SCO to Linux to Windows with my software three times in
a year.  As long as they're not concurrently used, I don't really give a
damn.  Now if I can take advantage of someone else's strategy to my own
benefit, well that's just smart--not my fault they have the policies they
have in place.  :)
</shameless_plug>

mark->
-- 
The latest synth mixdown...
http://media.fairlite.com/Isolation_Voiceless_Cry_Mix.mp3