[plug] SCO

[Bernd Felsche]

On Sat, Jun 07, 2003 at 12:47:43AM +0800, Chris Caston wrote:
> I think I remember Rusty saying something along the lines of 
> 
> "The big secret about the Linux kernel is that much of it is cut and
> pasted from other kernels"

What is "much"?? 

> http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10300314

What the "independent" analyst probably doesn't realize (being kind)
is that the comments etc. coincide because they appear in
_published_ sources. e.g. descriptions of system calls.

Also, the "fingerprinting" by identifying comments, etc is
misleading and superfluous in the Linux kernel. Every change can be
tracked to individual contributors, can't it?

I guess that's why Linus isn't too concerned about SCO's claims
because, in the first instance, it's up to the contributors to
ensure that their stuff is "clean" and really theirs to contribute.

It's also dubious to identify "identical" code segments by their
comments if authors have worked on similar projects.

Also "Linux systems from IBM" is, afaict, a non-entity. IBM don't
provide Linux to customers.

They have about as much relevance as "Linux systems from Microsoft"
(X-Box).

-- 
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