Lawsuits could unravel Linux

When Utah technology executive Darl McBride sniffs Linux, the free computer operating system, he picks up a scent of Unix, a long-established business system he maintains made Linux sturdy and reliable.

McBride is chief executive of The SCO Group Inc., which acquired rights to Unix through a series of corporate acquisitions and mergers. SCO sued IBM Corp. for dumping allegedly confidential Unix code into Linux and sued DaimlerChrysler AG and AutoZone Inc. for deploying Linux systems without an SCO license.

The suits sent a shudder through the open-source movement and threaten to literally unravel Linux as it gains commercial acceptance and market share on Microsoft Corp. It also exposed a gaping liability of Linux, a work of thousands of hackers whose contributions of software code may be original — or not.

But others think SCO is bluffing. Show us the code, says Linux high priest Linus Torvalds, who dismisses SCO's claims as "just totally out to lunch." SCO has been hesitant to publicly reveal the stolen goods and fumbled early disclosures, pointing to the wrong code.

Torvalds, the Finnish college student who wrote the original Linux kernel and is the gatekeeper for contributions that have steadily improved the operating system, says Linux contains no Unix or Unix-derived code and doesn't need it — and he doesn't appreciate the accusation.

"It's as if Darl was going public calling my child a slut," Torvalds said in a series of lengthy e-mails to The Associated Press from his home in San Jose, Calif.

Linux does contain some IBM-written code, he acknowledged, turning at least part of the debate on slippery semantics.

SCO is claiming rights on the code IBM wrote for its version of Unix called AIX, which IBM will claim it owns outright, calling it "third-party code." A trial has been set for April 2005.

McBride claims more than 700,000 lines of Unix-derived code have seeped into Linux, whose "kernel" or brains contain about 5.7 million lines of code. It was code IBM and other Unix customers, who were supposed to keep it confidential under licensing pacts, just gave away, he says.

SCO disclosed under court seal code for 232 software products to IBM for study but won't let others see any unless they sign a confidentiality pact, a condition the AP refused.