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From: "Dana Lacoste" <dana.lacoste@peregrine.com>
To: "Rob Landley" <telomerase@yahoo.com>, "Larry McVoy" <lm@bitmover.com>
Cc: <maddog@valinux.com>, <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
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Subject: [OT] Re: Is there a Linux trademark issue with sun?
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 15:26:42 -0500
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Rob Landley wrote :
> Sun feels that their core product, Solaris, is
> threatened by Linux.  They have several options:

> A) Jump on board and use Linux on their hardware.
> B) Improve Solaris until it can compete on its own
> merits.
> C) Market Solaris better, to make people want Solaris
> instead of Linux.
> D) Confuse people into thinking that Linux and Solaris
> are the same thing.
> 
> He's gone for D, and he's run straight into the Linux
> trademark doing so.  If everybody wants to abolish the
> Linux trademark, that's fine.  But if we don't defend
> it here, I really do think it becomes too weak to be
> useful in other situations.

I don't think he did that at all :
(Devil's Advocate time :)

What he did was say that, while everyone was looking
at Linux as the solution to modern computing problems,
he didn't need to : he already has Solaris.  So Solaris
is his "Linux".

A matter of grammar, not legal or technical terms : he
didn't say that Solaris IS linux; he used a metaphor :
"[Solaris] is our implementation of Linux".

I'm not saying he's RIGHT : I'm just saying that he
didn't intend to abuse the Linux trademark.  He's
taken a mix of (B) and (C) from above, claiming that
his Solaris product can accomplish the same product
targets that Linux does.

Why should Sun provide anything for Linux if they
already have Solaris providing all of the functionality?

Could I say that Wine is my Windows implementation?  Windows
is a trademark, but everyone knows what I mean, right?
Microsoft's not going to be writing me any letters, right?
(well, none that I'm going to pay attention to, right? :)

All just rhetoric, of course.
Advocacy doesn't belong on linux-kernel :)

--
Dana Lacoste
Linux Developer
Peregrine Systems

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