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The Victor Raisys Back Story

By Pamela Jones et al.

Do you, by any chance, remember the name Victor Raisys? He was a technology analyst at Soundview Technology Group, who predicted difficulties for Linux when the SCO litigation began in 2003. Here's an example:

SCO's suit has "introduced a lot of confusion and uncertainty into the Linux market, which could ... dampen some of the future growth," Victor Raisys, a Soundview Technology Group analyst, told the Raleigh News & Observer. "The SCO lawsuit raises thorny intellectual property issues, and, analysts say, poses the potential for more court battles as other companies assert rights to some of the communal code," the newspaper reported.

Guess where he worked *before* the stint at Soundview? At Microsoft, and not only that, his job was to keep an eye on Linux for Microsoft, according to Dave Winer's 1999 account:

Last week, talking with Victor Raisys, Microsoft's guy watching Linux, a heated conversation -- they were playing the "There have always been a lot of Unixes" tape for me, and I said emphatically, Linux is not Unix....

At the end of the Microsoft conversation they asked what I would do about Linux if I called the shots at Microsoft.

He's listed that same year as one of Microsoft's "Linux 10", "a team at Redmond tasked with the assignment of studying the Linux phenomena and trying to decipher a way to stop it." Is that not a little odd to you?

Full post as published by Groklaw on August 01, 2008 (boomark / email).