Check out this gem of an interview with Darl McBride. Talking about the quarter of a million dollar reward that he has put up for the capture of the MyDoom virus writer:

Well, the way it works here, Miles, is to pay the reward out means that that person will be in jail. So I guess conceivably they could turn themselves in, go to jail, sit around with their $250,000 and get out. So I guess maybe that’s the way to make money. Since you can’t make money with Linux because it’s free, maybe that’s the new monetization system.

I would hope that most of you out there have figured out just how off base this joke actually is. For most people it takes only a few seconds. But just in case I would like to say that it is possible to make money working with Linux. What Darl seems to be pissed about is that in the new age of computing one has to actually DO something in order to make money. The days of coming up with a single idea and then raping your customers with it over and over again seem to be passing. And in the absence of any discernible talent companies can no longer get by on just being huge. Most business owners are relatively happy about this, it should harbor in a whole new age of efficiency and radical new business models. It will be interesting, refreshingly new, engaging, challenging, and progressive. And this isn’t just radical communist talk either, or hollow futurism, or blind technological cheerleading. Joseph Schumpeter spoke about the forces of a free market which are both constructive and destructive. SCO happens to be on the destructive end of that cycle this time around. Rather than trying to shift their model to something which matches reality their President and CEO is lashing out like a schoolyard bully.

If I remember the stages of accepting death correctly, it goes something like : denial, anger, fear, hope, and finally acceptance. Sounds like Darl is experiencing anger at this point. Damn, that means there are probably 3 stages to go. I’m hoping that he wigs out and locks himself in a closet during the fear stage. Maybe if we can find ways to get little wind up penguins placed in his path all the time we can drive him over the edge. Like if he found them in his briefcase when he got to work, sitting on the hood of his car, handed to him by random strangers in the street. Not that I really wish the guy any harm, it’s just that his fanaticism and baseless propaganda and fearmongering remind me of the kinds of attitudes that get people burned at the stake for trying to explain that the world doesn’t work the way it was previously thought to. Not that I feel he’ll succeed in the long run, but he has the potential to do a lot of damage on his way down. Sorta like an infant playing with a pack of matches while sitting in a box of TNT. He doesn’t seem to be sure of what he’s doing, ignorant of the threat he poses to himself and others, capable of massive damage, and completely beyond control. Fortunately he seems to be destroying his company and his credibility in the process.